Discussion 8 Language and Cognition
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Discussion 8: Language and Cognition
There is no way to disprove that language and cognition are intrinsically linked. Even the
most private of our thoughts are spoken via language. There are a significant number of distinct
languages spoken around the globe. Furthermore, the environment and how people interact
socially vary from one location to the next, which in turn influences how people think. When we
consider professional language and the languages of various professions, we find each one is like
a microcosm of language. This is because the requirements and objectives of each work
environment are distinct, which in turn causes a shift in the worker's way of thinking and their
use of language.
I found it quite interesting to observe how much language affects cognition, particularly
when considering that it is more than just our ability to understand language. According to
Boroditski (2011), people all over the globe interact with one another using an
outstanding variety of languages, roughly 7,000 in total, and each language needs completely
different things from its speakers. Furthermore, Boroditsky (2011) also stated that different
languages pass on different cognitive skills, such as knowing which direction a person is facing,
how one's writing directions influence how one organizes time, how one remembers events, and
how one learns new things. Environment, society, and needs all contribute to the formation of
languages. Wolf and Holmes (2010) mentioned that linguistic relativity claims that people who
speak various languages have distinct ways of thinking. This idea is also applicable in the
professional setting, where the disparity in environment and purpose affects not only the way
people communicate but also the way they think.
Both Marian and Shook (2012) and Bialystok et al., (2012) note the fact that knowing
more than one language may change the structure of a person's brain to the point where growth,
productivity, and decline are less destructive and slower compared to those who only know one
language. Many features come from various languages that can improve the way things are done,
but the same features also have the potential to have downsides. The fact that different languages
have different words for things that resemble the same but have nothing to do with each other,
along with the fact that individual languages have different rules for assigning grammatical
gender to their words, both contribute to a breakdown in language communication (Wolff &
Holmes, 2010). There are also disagreements about knowledge of motion, color, numbers, spatial
analogies, and classifications with diverse languages; speakers of these languages perceive these
topics differently due to the varied methods in which they were taught (Wolff & Holmes, 2010).
By studying the brain and how it responds to different stimuli, we can better understand
which brain regions are involved with how individuals interpret language, particularly those
fluent in more than one language, and improve people's cognitive abilities concerning
communication using this information. Learning to speak a language uniquely contributes to its
own set of mannerisms, cultures, and settings, all of which may be better understood with the
assistance of the expertise of a person who is fluent in each of the examined languages.
References: Bialystok,
E., Craik,
F.
I., & Luk,
G. (2012). Bilingualism: Consequences for mind and brain.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences
,
16
(4), 240-250.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2012.03.001
Boroditsky,
L. (2011). How language shapes thought.
Scientific American
,
304
(2), 62-
65.
https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican0211-62
Marian, V., & Shook, A. (2012). The cognitive benefits of being bilingual.
Cerebrum: The Dana forum on brain science
,
2012
, 13.
Wolff, P., & Holmes, K. (2010). Linguistic Relativity. WIREs Cognitive Science. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.104
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