Language

I thought this was interesting. So I posted it. My editorial comments on stuff posted on this blog are going to be very limited. yay.

clipped from www.aber.ac.uk

Human beings do not live in the objective world alone, nor alone in the world
of social activity as ordinarily understood, but are very much at the mercy of
the particular language which has become the medium of expression for their
society. It is quite an illusion to imagine that one adjusts to reality
essentially without the use of language and that language is merely an
incidental means of solving specific problems of communication or
reflection. The fact of the matter is that the 'real world' is to a large extent
unconsciously built upon the language habits of the group. No two
languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the
same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct
worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached... We see
and hear and otherwise experience very largely as we do because the
language habits of our community predispose certain choices of
interpretation.