Speaking Reality into Existence: The Generative Power of Language & Neuroscience 🧠
Diving Deep into the Mind: The Intersection of Linguistics and Neuroscience (7min Read)
TL;DR Summary:
Language shapes perception and information organization, it’s not just for communication.
Ancient Greeks and John Locke recognized language's influence on emotions and knowledge.
Sapir-Whorf Theory: Language directly affects thought and perception, differing by culture.
Chomsky's Universal Grammar suggests a common linguistic structure in all humans.
Steven Pinker merges these ideas, indicating language subtly influences but doesn't dictate thought.
Embodied Cognition demonstrates how physical experiences affect language and cognition.
Research supports a complex relationship between language, thought, and bodily experience, influencing our understanding of reality.
Welcome Back!
Today we are talking about language.
When I was studying cognitive neuroscience as an undergrad, one of the pillars of neuroscience was this field of study called, “Linguistics.”
At first, I thought it was a random thing they threw into the curriculum, but more recently as I’ve gotten into more advanced studies, I’m beginning to understand why it’s one of the main pillars of neuroscience.
And that is because language did not evolve as a means of communication, it evolved as a way for our minds and brains to organize and process information.
The likely first piece of information we had to process and organize was our Self from the World.
Think about it, to know that you have a “Self” or this thing that you call “you” or “I”, you must know that there’s something that’s not “you” or “I”.
This is the World or all things outside of the Self, but you couldn’t come to this realization without a way to describe it or process it, which is language.
Language has been creating our reality ever since!
By the end of our conversation today, you’ll understand that language is a technology, and that words aren’t just descriptive, they are generative.
This is gonna be a wild ride… Let’s dive in.
In the Beginning…
Plato & Aristotle (Ancient Greece, 4th century BCE)
The origins of thinking about language's impact on thought can be traced back to ancient Greece.
Plato pondered the relationship between words and the objects they represent, while Aristotle considered how words could evoke emotions and actions.
They came to this by observing children learning to speak.
They noticed how a child associates the word "tree" with the tall, leafy entity in the yard.
This led them to think about how naming the tree influences the child's emotions and actions towards it.
The child can not only recognize the tree by naming it, but it can also feel wonder or seek shelter under its branches.
This early understanding that words can evoke emotions and actions led them to consider how language can shape our interactions with the world.
John Locke, The Blank Slate Theory (17th century)
The next big milestone in language research came when John Locke argued that all knowledge comes from experience, mediated by language.
He suggested that babies were born as “blank states” hence the name, The Blank State Theory.
To make this clearer, imagine twins that are raised in different environments.
One in a bustling city and the other in a serene countryside.
The city twin learns words like "skyscraper," and "hustle," shaping his blank slate to fill reality with speed, and urgency.
The countryside twin, conversing about "rivers," "mountains," and "stillness," develops a perception of the world that is vast, calm, and interconnected.
This divergence in linguistic environment, Locke would argue, leads to fundamentally different understandings of the world.
Wild right? It gets weirder, stick with me!
Sapir- Whorf Theory (early to mid-20th century)
The Sapir-Whorf Theory is one of the prevailing linguistic theories even today.
It suggests that the language we speak influences how we think and perceive the world.
According to this theory, speakers of different languages will experience the world differently due to the linguistic structures they use.
For instance, Russian speakers, who have more words for different shades of blue, are quicker to distinguish between different hues than English speakers.
This suggests that our vocabulary can shape what we literally see and perceive.
A Russian speaker may see 8 different colors, while an English speaker only sees 2, even though they are looking at the same thing.
This is where language and perception start to collide.
Then came Noam Chomsky…
Universal Grammar Theory (1950s onwards)
This is where things get a bit complex, so I will do my best to describe Noam Chomsky’s Universal Grammar Theory as simply as possible.
Chomsky's idea about universal grammar suggests that all languages are built in a similar way deep down in our brains.
He believes that our brains are born ready to learn any language because they all have the same basic rules.
According to the idea of universal grammar, our natural ability to learn any language shows that even though different languages might sound or look different, the way we think underneath it all stays the same.
This challenges the thought that the language we speak decides how we think in a fixed way, as the Sapir-Whorf Theory suggests.
Sapir-Whorf Theory vs. Universal Grammar
To simplify how these two theories are at odds with one another, think of the Sapir-Whorf theory as different keys that open different doors to different rooms.
While Universal Grammar is a universal key that can open any door.
So, who’s right?
The answer isn’t as simple as you’d like, because they’re both right.
Luckily, Steven Pinker and modern neuroscience can help us understand this paradox better!
Steven Pinker to the Rescue
Steven Pinker bridges these theories by suggesting that while our ability to think is not strictly determined by our language (supporting Chomsky's view), language can influence our thoughts in subtle ways (the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis).
Pinker suggests while we all have the same underlying linguistic structure, the specific language we speak can color our experiences and thoughts to some extent, but not completely define or limit them.
In simpler terms, it's like saying everyone's brain is programmed to run the same basic software (Universal Grammar), but the apps (languages) we choose to install can affect how we use our software, without changing the software itself.
Pinker's take suggests that while the apps can provide unique tools and features (influences on thought), they don't fundamentally change the operating system (innate thought processes) beneath.
This approach is a beautiful blend of these two paradigms and is closer to where we are today in terms of wrestling with how language structures reality.
Modern Neuroimaging
Modern neuroimaging has allowed us to observe how language processing occurs in the brain and how it impacts the way we think.
These advances support the idea of a complex, bidirectional relationship between language and thought.
This perspective supports Pinker's argument that thought and language, while distinct, interact in dynamic ways.
However, the story isn’t over yet!
The final wrinkle to our story is one of my favorites and some of the newest research emerging from the fields of neuroscience and linguistics!
Embodied Cognition
Alright, last but not least, we have Embodied Cognition which brings together all that we’ve learned so far and adds another piece to the puzzle!
This is a newer idea that helps us understand how our body movements and what we feel by touching or moving around can change the way we think and talk.
It suggests that doing things with our bodies, like playing sports or building stuff, can influence our thoughts and the words we use, just as much as the language we speak.
Imagine if you use your hands a lot to make things, the way you understand and describe the world might be different from someone who’s an athlete.
Woodworker vs. Athlete Perspectives Examples
To really get how we think and talk, we need to look at how we interact with everything around us, not just the words we use or the built-in brain skills we have.
The Feeling of Warmth Experiment
Here is another way physical sensations can influence our thinking.
The Feeling of Warmth study showed us that holding a warm cup of coffee made people perceive other people as warmer or more generous when they first met them.
I bet you can guess how they perceived others when they were holding a cold drink…
This phenomenon, where physical sensations influence metaphorical thinking is at the core of embodied cognition.
It suggests that our understanding of abstract concepts is grounded in bodily experiences.
Embodied cognition proposes that language and thought are not just abstractly processed but are deeply influenced by our sensory and motor systems.
This illustrates a direct link between how we move through and perceive the world and how we think and communicate about it.
Bringing It All Together
Today, we understand that the way language influences our view of the world involves a complex interaction between our built-in brain abilities, the languages we speak, and our physical experiences.
This means that even though some ways of thinking are common to everyone, our unique language use and physical experiences add special details to how we see the world.
And what a beautiful thought this is…
Just imagine all of the different and unique perspectives that are out there for you to explore.
It boggles the mind.
I hope you can now appreciate the power of language not just as a tool for communication but as a builder of worlds within your mind.
Until next time… Live Heroically 🧠
Supporting Research
Chomsky, N. (1957). Syntactic Structures. The Hague: Mouton.
Lakoff, G., & Johnson, M. (1980). Metaphors We Live By. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Locke, J. (1690). An Essay Concerning Human Understanding. London: Thomas Basset.
Pinker, S. (1994). The Language Instinct: How the Mind Creates Language. New York: William Morrow and Company.
Sapir, E. (1921). Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech. New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company.
Whorf, B. L. (1956). Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee Whorf. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Williams, L. E., & Bargh, J. A. (2008). Experiencing physical warmth promotes interpersonal warmth. Science, 322(5901), 606-607.
Aristotle. (350 B.C.E.). De Interpretatione. In J. Barnes (Ed.), The Complete Works of Aristotle: The Revised Oxford Translation (Vol. 1). Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984.
Plato. (c. 370 B.C.E.). Cratylus. In J. M. Cooper (Ed.), Plato: Complete Works. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 1997.
Gibbs, R. W. (2006). Embodiment and Cognitive Science. New York: Cambridge University Press.