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Question re connection between language and knowledge

Answered 16 August 2014

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The answer to the question as formulated in the last sentence is a resounding no. Language does in no way represent or reflect any underlying truths about the world. In fact, the very definition of language is that it represents one way of reflecting a particular way of perceiving the world.

Different languages represent this reality in different ways. Perhaps the one universal tendency is that much of language reflects certain realities of the human body. However, even here languages will differ in the particulars.

At best you can say that some language structures reflect certain social realities. But this will mostly be limited to vocabulary and phraseology. At any rate, any such correspondences can only be reconstructed, never predicted.

Plus, you make a very simplistic link between knowledge, names and physical reality. You could say that all three are constantly interacting in a mutually constructive way. But there is no chain of mirror like reflections.

Ultimately, you need to problematize both your notions of language and knowledge. Once you see them in all their complexity, the question will make less and less sense.

© Dominik Lukeš. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0. Originally published on Linguistics Stack Exchange, attributed there to Dominik Lukes (profile).