Language and thought relationship

Syed Mohsin Rizvi
M.A English
Roll No.40

 A system of symbols for thinking and
communicating
 Sentence meaning: Word sense
• Semantic meaning
• Perceptual meaning
• Syntactic meaning
• Pragmatic meaning
 Tool
• To clarify thinking
• For social communication
• To influence people
• Word Sense

 Language live, change, and die
 E.g., Latin – a ‘dead’ language
 English
• Old English , AD 700-1050
• Middle English AD 1050-1450
• Early Modern English, AD 1450-1700
• Modern English, 1700-Present

Faeder ure
Thu the eart on
henofonum,
Si thin name
gehalgod.
Tobecume thin rice.
Gewurthe thin willa
on eorthan swa
swa on heofonum.
Urne
gedaeghwamlican
hlaf syle you to
daeg.
And forgyf you urne
gyltas,swa swa you
forgyfath urum
gyltendum,
And ne gelaed thu
you on costnunge,
ac alys you of
yfele, Sothlice.
Oure fadur
That art in hauenes,
Halewid be thi
name;
This kyngdoom
come to;
Be thi wile don in
erthe as in
heuene; zyue to
vs this dai oure
breed ouer othir
substanunce;
And forzyue to vs
oure dettis, as you
forzyuen to oure
dettouris;
And lede vs not in to
temptacioun,
But delyuere
vs.from yeul.
Amen.
Our Father
Which art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy
name.
Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done, in
earth, as it it is in
heaven.
Give us this day our
daily bread.
And forgive us our
debts, as we forgive
our debtors.
And lead us not into
temptation, but
deliver us from evil,
for Thine is the
kingdom, and the
power and the glory
for ever. Amen.

Sounds Words Sentences
/
oure/ /
our/
Gyltas –
dettis –
debts/
trespasses
Forgyf you urne gyltas, swa
swa you forgyfath urum
gyltendeum
Forzyue to vs oure dettis, as
ou forzyuen to oure dettouris

 Let one thing represent something else
 Words stand for or represent objects, ideas,
and other aspects of human experience’
 System of spoken sounds and written markings
that we use to represent various aspects of our
experience (p. 206)
 Set of symbolic building blocks:
• Sounds – letters
• Words – objects, thoughts, feelings, actions, concepts
• Meaning – combination of all ideas feelings
associated with word

Create 2 columns: men and women.
Write down all the words that you can think of that we
use to describe men’s body weight
List all the words that you can think of to describe
women’s body weight
Go back and mark whether the words are negative or
positive or neutral
How many positive words are there for women? For
men?
Meanings of the words?
What is the difference between denotative and
connotative meanings of words?

 College education
 Happiness
 Freedom
 Creative
 Love
 Creativity
 What are some other “loaded words” that
conjure up different meanings?

 Semantic meaning
• Relationship between a linguistic event and a
nonlinguistic event
• Denotative meaning – general properties that
determine the way the word is used
 Perceptual meaning
• Relationship between a linguistic event and
an individual’s consciousness
• Connotative meaning – literal or basic
meaning plus all it suggests

 Syntactic meaning
• Relationship of word to other words in a sentence
 Content: words that express the major message of the
sentence
 Description: words that elaborate or modify the major
message
 Connection: words that join the major message of the
sentence
 Pragmatic meaning
 The person speaking and the situation

‘Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
“Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!”
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought –
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
…….

 Abortion: pro-life, anti-abortion, pro-
choice, pro-abortion
 The Language of Cloning: human
cloning, nuclear transplantation,
therapeutic cellular transfer (TCT),
cloned embryos, activated egg, cleaving
egg, ovasome

 Understand how language functions
 Read widely
 Analyze the work of highly regarded writers
who use word meanings accurately
 Use action verbs, concrete nouns, vivid
adjectives
 Vary sentence length to keep the reader’s
attention and create a variety of senetnce
styles to enrich meaning
 Use the full range of words to express
yourself
 Get feedback from other people

Action Verbs Concrete Nouns Vivid Adjectives
Pulled up Aluminum chairs wandering

 Language reflects thinking and
thinking is shaped by language.
 Language is a tool powered by
patterns of thinking.
 Language has the power to represent
thoughts, feelings, and experiences
symbolically.
 How well you perform one process
(writing or speaking) is directly
related to how well you perform the
other (thinking).

 Sloppy use of language (vague, general,
indistinct, imprecise, foolish, inaccurate)
leads to sloppy thinking.
 Clear and precise language leads to
clear and precise thinking.
 Clear effective language vs. language
that fails to help reader form a picture or
understand the writer’s meaning.

 I had a nice time yesterday.
 That is an interesting book.
 She is an old person.
 Pulp Fiction is a really funny movie about some
really unusual characters in California.The movie
consists of several different stories that connectc
up at different points. Some of the stories are
nerve-racking and others are hilarious, but all of
them are not very well done. The plots are very
interesting, and the main characters are excellent.
I liked this movie a lot.

 Who? What? Where? When? How? Why?
 Use clear and precise language.
 An ecstatically entertaining piece of suave
mockery by Quentin Tarantino that revels in
every manner of pulp flagrancy – murder and
betrayal, drugs, sex and episodes of
sardonically distanced sadomasochism – all
told in three overlapping tales. It’s a very funky,
American sort of pop masterpiece improbably,
uproarious, with bright colors and danger and
blood right on the surface.

 Account of Avianca Flight 52 (p. 225)
 If the pilot of the airplane were alive, how
do you think he would analyze the cause
of the crash?
 How do the air traffic controllers and the
FAA analyze the cause of the crash?
 How do you analyze the cause of the
crash? What reasons led you to that
conclusion?

 Different social contexts call for different
language responses.
 Familiarity – abbreviation of language
style which identifies shared thinking
and restricts group of people who can
communicate within this context
 Styles separate outsiders
 Use language to identify the social
contextg and to define the relationship
between the people communicating

 Rules and conventions given in
handbooks and taught in school
 Use of SAE represents membership in
educated group
 Lexical items, e.g.,‘bell curve’‘literary
symbol’

 Slang: a restrictive style of langauge that
limits its speakers to a particular group
 Jargon: words, expressions, technical
terms that are intelligible to the
professional circles or interest groups
but not to the general public
 Dialects: system of communication
distinguished by sounds and markings
among given groups of people

 Euphemistic language: substituting a
more pleasant less objectionable way of
saying something for a blunt or more
direct way
 Emotive language: language that evokes
feelings in people

Language and thought relationship

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