Language both influences and is influenced by thought and reality. While language allows us to express concepts about the world, it is mediated by cognition and context. Different languages categorize concepts differently due to the experiences and needs of their speakers. For example, Inuit languages have over 50 words for snow due to their reliance on distinguishing snow conditions. Language also uses deixis, or elements requiring context, to refer to reality, such as pronouns referring to people or places. Overall, language, thought, and reality have a complex and reciprocal relationship.

1. MEANING, THOUGHT AND REALITY
How categories influence thinking
Thais Souza
Vinícius André

2. COGNITIVE SEMANTICS

The main principles:
- Language is a way of expressing speaker’s
concepts of the world
- Language is acquired and contextual
- The ability to use language is based on general
cognitive resources

3. Theories

Language: a system of symbols related to entities
in the world (as they are represented mentally)
and to connections between them.

Thoughts are “inner states” and “inner
representations”. (Devitt, M.; Sterelny, K., 1987)
Let’s consider the phrase:
the tall blond man with one black shoe.
In this context, “the man” and “him” may refer to the
same person. It’s the brain that makes the
connections, not English language itself.

4. • “Mentalese”, the language of thought. (Pinker,
1994)
Pinker suggests that “people do not think in
English or Chinese… they think in a language
of thought.”

5. Language vs Thought
Linguistic Determinism Linguistic Relativism
vs
thoughts are determined by
lexicalized concepts
(vocabulary, grammar)
differences among languages
cause differences in the
thoughts of their speakers

Thought influences language by “our functioning in
the world”. (Lakoff, 1987)

6. Experiential Realism Objective Realism
vs
conceptual structures
depend on and develop
from our bodily experiences
reality exists beyond individual
experiences but can be
captured regardless
Language and Reality

Reality: individual’s experience or world perception

7. Linguistic Categorization

Our cognition develops concepts (mental
representations of the world) based on our
experience and then we use language to refer
to these cognitive concepts. This is the
linguistic process of Categorization.
BUT

Categorizing can be problematic!

8. Is this a cup or a bowl?

9. Reference or Representation?

Referential view is focused on direct relationships
between expressions (words, sentences) and
things in the world (realist/determinist view). It’s a
study of Formal Semantics.

Representational view is focused on how
relationships between expressions (words,
sentences) and things in the world are mediated
by the mind. It’s a study of Cognitive Semantics.
Adapted from Francis Bond

10. Deixis: Language referring to reality
Any linguistic element that needs extra-
linguistic context to be properly interpreted is
deictic.
There are many types of deictic elements
(person, time, space, discourse, social status):

You, me, this, that, today, tomorrow, here, there
and so on.
Adapted from Francis Bond

11. Social Deixis
French tu and vous for you.
Tu: the familiar form of addressing to
somebody in a similar social situation;
Vous: the honorific (formal) or polite form
of addressing someone.
http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/grammar/tu_and_vous.shtml

12. What are social similar conditions?
• Age;
• role in the current “speech context” (shopkeeper vs.
customer; teacher vs. pupil);
• Job status (junior vs. boss);
• Where the person you're speaking to fits in your
"social network“;
• How well you know the person you're speaking
with;
• Your attitude towards the person you're speaking
with (respect / disdain).
http://www.french-linguistics.co.uk/grammar/tu_and_vous.shtml

13. Social Deixis
Tanaka-san-ga kudasaimashita
(addressee and subject honorification)
Tanaka-san-ga kudasatta
(subject honorification)
Tanaka-kun-ga kuremashita
(addressee honorification)
Tanaka-kun-ga kureta
(no honorification)
Tanaka gave it to me
Examples by Francis Bond

14. Language Relativity
• The language we think in makes some concepts easy to
express, but others hard. That is why it is difficult to
translate some words:
Iktsuarpok (Inuit) To go outside to check if anyone
is coming.
Kyoikumama (JP): A mother who relentlessly pushes
her children toward academic achievement.
Saudade (PT): One of the most beautiful of all words,
translatable or not, this word “refers to the feeling of
longing for something or someone that you love and
which is lost.” Fado music, a type of mournful singing,
relates to saudade.
Cafuné (PT-br): The act of tenderly running one’s
fingers through someone’s hair.

15. German is though to be a useful
language for philosophical scholarship
“It's amazing how I can feel sorry for you and hate you
at the same time. I'm sure there's a German word for it.”
Lisa to her brother from Simpsons episode How Munched is
That Birdie in the Window?

16. Do you know many different words
for “snow” “Eskimos” have?

17. Do you know many different words
for “snow” “Eskimos” have?
Shockingly 50, according to anthropologist Franz
Boa, but numbers may vary.
Do we consider “ice” as a type of snow?

18. “Eskimo” Languages

19. “Eskimo” Languages
- There are different varieties. The most usual are
Inuit and Yupik, but both have many different
dialects.
- The common aspect is polysynthesis:
The process of encoding a huge amount of
information in one word by plugging various
suffixes onto a base word.

20. A few examples:
Aqilokoq: softly falling snow;
Piegnartoq: the snow [that is] good for driving sled;
Matsaaruti: wet snow that can be used to ice a
sleigh’s runners;
Pukak: the crystalline powder snow that looks like salt
Utuqaq: ice that lasts year after year;
Siguliaksraq: the patchwork layer of crystals that
forms as the sea begins to freeze;
Auniq: ice that is filled with holes, like Swiss cheese.

21. Is language a consequence of reality?
Languages evolve to suit the ideas and
needs that are most crucial to the lives of their
speakers:
“These people need to know whether ice is fit to
walk on or whether you will sink through it. It’s a
matter of life or death” (Willem de Reuse,
linguist at the University of North Texas)

22. Conclusion
Linguistic elements refer to real
objects/beings (or their representations) but
cognition interprets and differentiates them,
identifying them in the world.

23. References
FLOHR. Birgitt. The Relationship between Thought and Reality in Cognitive
Semantics. Available at https://www.itp.uni-hannover.de/~flohr/papers/m-
mod-engl-lang1.pdf
______. Cognitive Semantics. Wikipedia. Available at
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cognitive_semantics
BOND, Francis. Meaning, Thought and Reality. Available at
http://compling.hss.ntu.edu.sg/courses/hg2002/pdf/lec-02-reality.pdf
ROBSON, David. There really are 50 Eskimo words for ‘snow’ in New Scientist;
Available at http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/there-
really-are-50-eskimo-words-for-snow/2013/01/14/e0e3f4e0-59a0-11e2-
beee-6e38f5215402_story.html
When do I use tu and when do I use vous? Available at http://www.french-
linguistics.co.uk/grammar/tu_and_vous.shtml
20 awesomely untranslatable words from around the world. Available at
http://matadornetwork.com/abroad/20-awesomely-untranslatable-words-
from-around-the-world/
Access on 05.17th.15