Re:Nominative determinism in hospital medicine (2015)
by mtVessel on Friday January 14, 2022 @10:44AM
(#29935836)
I agree, which is why I feel it's worthwhile to expand one's vocabulary, and expose yourself to a variety of communication styles. It's so subtle, it's hard to tell how much your choice of words influences your thinking, or how you process the world around you. More tools in the language toolbox can literally be mind-expanding.
I think the effect takes a lot of different forms. It can happen as a result of connotations or homonyms of certain words. Or it can come down to artistic considerations. For example, one might prefer to express an idea in slightly different language that is less effective but more poetic sounding. Or maybe the author thinks it would be thrilling to make a very grand sounding statement when they had originally set out to touch on something more specific. And so the language ends up forming the idea just as much as it's meant to communicate it.
I think this is clearly evident in political debates where people talk themselves into a frenzy.