Language and Communication
Human beings' intentions of interacting with each other are compounded into sharing and exchanging meaning and understanding of the environment or what scholars term as communication. Language although mostly characterized as an exclusive entity of humankind, is at the forefront of the entire communication process (Gleitman " Papafragou 2005). Usage of language enables humanity to share and pass on beliefs, knowledge, opinions, and feelings. It is no surprise then that some scholars associate the language with the process of thinking known as the Whorfian view. Boroditsky, Schimidt, " Philips (2003) assert that the Whorfian view impresses the notion that linguistic diversity compound with it, ways in which particular people are speaking particular languages perceive, decode and react. It expresses that thought and language determine the thinking and acting processes of human beings. On the other hand, some scholars' advocate that language is merely and exclusively a tool that is used to complement the thinking process by transmitting it from one mind to the other.
The Link Between Language and Thought
The link between language and the thought process is undeniable. People who speak a particular language almost always have to convert different aspects of their environment for them to use language appropriately (Boroditsky, Schimidt, " Philips 2003). Thinking with a view of speaking is the process of cognition that includes diction, an organization of discernible grammatical structures. Thinking for speaking, therefore, ought to be different due to the diversity of languages. Boroditsky et al. (2003) compare Russian speakers and English speakers stating that Russian speakers are concerned with the grammatical gender agreements in their dialects while the English do not have to. There is an apparent difference in the process of thinking to communicate through speech between Russians and English speakers. Language has some influence in shaping the cognition of more abstract elements that rarely rely on sensory perception and experience.
Language and Thought Acquisition
Language serves as a tool to enhance and extend the thought and cognition process. Acquisition of some types of thinking and concepts is dependent on expression (Carruthers 2002). Language is also necessary for the accumulation of thoughts and constitutes some of the ideas acquired. For instance, children possess different notions for the things they interact with. Many young children tend to perceive natural kinds. Carruthers(2002) notes that the growing children will tend to think that any object that carries with itself similar conditions will belong to members of that kind. Differences in appearances and behavior do not determine the children perceptions. All of this occurs due to practices that have observed from adults in the way they name objects and items that surround kids. Kids, on the other hand, internalize those acquired concepts from a more extensive array of like ideas that they possess.
Language and Moral Judgment
A moral judgment or deciding what is right and wrong is assumed to be inherent among all human beings. As costa et al. (2014) suggests, for one to understand moral dilemma mostly depends on the language in which a person is presented with the situation. They go ahead to show that when people have the same moral dilemma in two different languages then their reaction is mixed in both positions. The assigning of moral judgment is because of just more than one acting force, automatic processes that arise due to emotions and in-depth evaluation that requires rationality. For one to achieve rationality, an awareness of electronic methods that allow judgment by considering the greater good is needed. The study has shown that using a foreign language works to reduce the utilitarian or the "greater good" resolutions of all moral dilemmas. It works to assume that foreign language induces stress to the mind when trying to assign meaning to any complicated situation and thus one is compelled to overlook the outcome.
Language and Decision Making
When one is in a complicated situation whereby the outcome of the decision depended on the emotional attachment of the position, a foreign language works to reduce the option of making the right choice (Costa et al. 2014). In the cognitive works of language, new and imposed language seems to elicit emotions and feelings that are far much less intense. Costa et al. (2014) in their study, argue that moral judgment is greatly influenced by the meaning, understanding, and thought assigned in a foreign language. For instance, some offensive word in individual languages is shrugged off as meaningless and do not elicit the same emotions as when the same meaning intended is uttered in one's indigenous language. A word functions to create control loops for future behavior and when such circuits are not communicated in the understandable language, then rationality is achieved (Bermudez 2003).
Gender Assignment to Objects
Some scholars have taken up the issues of assigning gender grammatically to objects. Boroditsky, Schimidt, " Philips (2003) suggest that grammatical gender affects the way in which people attach meaning or think about objects in nature. It happens when people focus on a particular aspect of naming a word that supposedly picks out the object as either female or male. This tendency or need to assign specific gender attributes to objects allows for the objects' prominence in their representation. Referring to inanimate objects as either male or female leads people to think of them in such parameters. Studies in how people of different language orientations assign gender to objects reveal that the majority of the people who entrusted gender to days of the week could not offer a salient explanation as to why they did so. The thought process, in this case, seems to be more attached to the way people in specific languages perceive objects and how semantics affect the thought process.
Relational Cognition and Language
Relational cognition is almost purely dependent on language and not merely as the vehicle for conveying assumed meaning but also as the tool that allows for the acquisition of relational concepts (Gentner 2016). People come to acquire relational knowledge by direct explanations. One can observe this situation in children where their parents, by employing the use of imprecise language type, they induce relations between one object and the other. Another arsenal in the creation of relational concepts is by demonstrating. Gentner (2016) theorizes that the use of symbols and examples in the explanation of occurrences linked to some other variable would create a relationship of causality. The language supports relational concepts by designing the room for comparisons. For instance, when a label is assigned to a particular object, studies have shown that people will be compelled to absorb and transfer a concept relating to the purpose. Prominent linguistic systems supplement the ability to represent and reason about correlations. Language allows for the propagation of conceptual relationships.
Conclusion
The Whorfian view of language as the sole contributor to human cognitive behavior no longer holds any ground. In its wake, the notion of whether language shapes the thought process has received supporting empirical evidence (Boroditsky, Schimidt, " Philips 2003) and other evidence gives contrary views (Li and Gleitman 2002). Bermudez (2003) points out six fundamental roles of language in enhancing and facilitating the thought process by various scholars. He notes that languages acquired publicly offer a robust means of systematically retaining data, not necessarily written but also that communicated orally. Language, when used to label objects, makes it easier to perceive the environment in simpler terms, making it an assistive tool in the cognition process.
References
Bermudez, J. L. (2003). Language and thinking about thoughts
Boroditsky, L., Schimidt, L. A., " Philips, W.(2003). Sex, syntax, and semantics. Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought 61-79.
Carruthers, P. (2002). The cognitive functions of languages. Behavioral and brain sciences
Costa, A., Foucault, A., Hayakawa, S., Aparicio, M., apesteguia, J., Heafner, J., " keys, B. (2014). Your morals depend on language. PloS one, 9(4),e94842
Genter, D. (2016). Language as cognitive tool kit: How Language supports relational thought. American Psychologists 71(8), 650
Gleitman, L., " Papafragou, A. (2005). Language and thought. Cambridge handbook of thinking and reasoning, 633-661
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