Brain wave

Linguists and cognititians spend a lot of paper, ink and brain power worrying about whether the language that one speaks shapes the way that one thinks in any significant way. A related question being whether Eskimos fuss about snow because they have a lot of words for it or do they have a lot of words because they fuss?

This morning it struck me that the proposition was almost trivially true. We only have to look back to reference 2 at the French word for coat hook, a word which started out as the cup used in ancient times for divine refreshment during sacrifices. It may well be that a bog-standard from Belleville would have no such associations from coat hooks, as no Englishman would, but it also seems likely that a Frenchman of a literary turn of mind would have such an association, that coat hooks would be tinged by sacrifice. The experience of the word would be different. Beyond that, the thinking would be different to the extent that different associations were fired up.

While, for some reason, I associated to the coat hooks on which sacrificial victims were asked to hang their coats before going on to the sacrificial chamber.

So the real question is the degree to which one's thought is shaped by the language one uses to express it, not whether it is shaped.

Reference 1: http://www.esks.com/fight-song/. Wrong sort of Eskimo.

Reference 2: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2016/10/libational-cups.html.