added by Stuart Evans and · updated 2y ago
Gaining Perspective Through Untranslatable Words
One word does not capture the thing. One language does not hold all things. More words and different words mean more and different perspectives, which is an immediate widening of our world.
from Magical Realism and the Sociology of Possibility by poetrynw.org
Keely Adler added
- On the one hand, language is a wonderful tool. It allows us to describe these other worlds in metaphors that help us think and imagine them. But there are many places where our language leaves us in the lurch. Like with vision, we don’t have a word for detecting light but not having a conscious experience of it.
from What Counts as Seeing by ed yong
Keely Adler and added
Untranslatable
andrea and added
This matters, because language is a form of power. It creates categories that help us interpret the world, and that which is not easily available in language is often ignored in thought itself. A shared vocabulary makes ideas more accessible while a lack of language can render an experience illegible. It can isolate.
from Ace: What Asexuality Reveals About Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen
Keely Adler and added
- We must learn to attend without language for what it is we are experiencing. There are so many worlds that we do not have language for, that perhaps humans will never develop language for, strain as we may. So many beings -- animals, trees, mountains, and rivers -- have no place in any sign system we might design, no expressive agency in any human ... See more
from Attending to the Other by Jasmine Wang
SpaceXponential added
- And so, while language is necessary, it does a disservice to reality. In attempting to describe the indescribable, words constrain reality. Through simplifications, generalizations, and connotations they mischaracterize and water it down. They fail to capture the complexity, uniqueness, and dynamism of life. And as a result, we never truly see, und... See more
from The Pursuit
("JP") and added
Kate Smalley and added
sari and added