The Limits of Language and Thought - Part 2: ...

This short episode ties together the thoughts explored in parts 1 and 2 and introduces the original song, “Lost In The Language” that acts as a companion piece to all of this talk about the limits of language and thought. 

Almost 100 years ago, Benjamin Lee Whorf suggested that thought was inextricably tied to and shaped by the language a person speaks. It’s a compelling and intriguing thought. But was he right? Thanks to Ann Bunger. Further reading: “Interactions Between Language and Mental Repres ...  Show more

Limiting language and thought errors can keep you from the live you were meant to live. In this episode, we explore the ways in which our use of language can inadvertently limit our thinking and hold us back from reaching our full potential. From using absolute language to engag ...  Show more

How close can words get you to the truth and feel and force of life? That's the question poking at our ribs this hour, as we wonder how it is that the right words can have the wrong meanings, and why sometimes the best translations lead us to an understanding that's way deeper ...

Continuing on Plato's mid-period dialogue about language. Is attaching a word to a thing, i.e. naming it, like other activities such as carpentry or sewing that can go wrong? Can we put the "form" of a thing into letters and syllabus of its name? We go through many examples where ...  Show more

Welcome to The Story of Language: an original podcast series about language, linguistics, cognition, and culture. In this episode we talk about linguistic relativity: the idea that the language we speak can change the way we think.