Altering our world view

Living Language

A friend who is an Anglican clergyman turned 70 this year. In the birthday speeches, his son said he always remembered a poster in his father's study which read, "God is a verb".

That poster raises an interesting language question. Would we think of God differently if God were a verb? Does our language influence the way we see things?

In the 1930s, a man called Benjamin Lee Whorf went to Arizona to study the language of the Hopi Indians. He came to the conclusion that the Hopi language was very different from any Western language, and therefore the Hopi viewed the world around them differently from Westerners.

They saw objects, time, and activities differently. Whorf concluded that this was because of their language.

In English we divide most of our words into two classes – they are either nouns (like "book" or "cup") or they are verbs ( like "turn" or "run"). But nature isn't so conveniently divided up.

It's our language which makes these divisions and sometimes it isn't clear cut.

Words like "striking," "turning", or "running" are verbs because they denote temporary or short-lasting events.

The word "fist" is a noun. Yet a fist is also an action – a temporary event. We can see a "fist" as an action when it's pointed out to us, but we think of a fist first of all as a thing (like a cup or a book) because it's categorised as a noun.

Our language influences the way we see it.

Today, people question whether Whorf got it right about the Hopi language, but putting that aside, he raised some interesting questions about language and the way we see the world. The language we speak isn't neutral – it imposes a pattern on things.

In Hopi, words like "lightning", "wave", "flame", "meteor", "puff of smoke" are all verbs.

So do the Hopi actually think of lightning and flames and meteors differently from speakers of English where they are nouns? Do things exist for us if we don't have words for them?

The linguist and anthropologist, Edward Sapir, wrote, "Would we be so ready to die for `liberty', to struggle for `ideals', if the words were not ringing within us?" Well, would we?

If you have an extensive vocabulary of colour words do you actually see colours differently from someone who hasn't heard of "yellow ochre" or "cerulean blue" or "brown madder" – they're just yellow, blue and brown?

You can see the power of words when the doctor gives your vague but miserable ailment a name. There will be a sigh of relief when you say "Ah, so I've got bi- gemini arrhythmia. Well, thank goodness for that. Now I can deal with it."

The other side of the coin is that names can also be fetters. When a family is labelled "dysfunctional" how much of what happens is determined by the labelling? Can the children who are "terrible twos" or their brothers and sisters who are "moody adolescents" easily break away from their labels? And would we think about God differently if God were a verb?

* Elizabeth Osmers Gordon can be contacted via words@press. co.nz.

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