If true we are well and truly screwed! Just look at your typical American (expecially young person) today and think about it.

It also could explain why so many people ('liberals' for example) have such a hard time dealing with FACTS when placed before them.



www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_962307,00040010.htm

Absence of linguistic skills could hamper thinking ability

Asian News International
London, August 21

Not being part of a culture with a highly developed language, could limit your thoughts, at least as far as numbers are concerned, reveals a new study conducted by a psychologist at the Columbia University in New York.

According to New Scientist, the researchers experimented with a Brazilian tribe called Pirahc, whose language allows counting only upto two. They found that when the members of the tribe were shown more objects they were unable to tell the difference between four objects placed in a row and five in the same configuration.

Scientists say that this study, which has been published in the journal Science Express, is the first convincing evidence that Ša language lacking words for certain concepts could actually prevent speakers of the language from understanding those concepts.

Previous experiments had also shown that while babies and intelligent animals, such as rats, pigeons and monkeys, are capable of precisely counting small quantities, they can only approximately distinguish between clusters consisting of larger numbers, the report added.

"There are certainly things that we can think about that we cannot talk about. But for numbers I have shown that a limitation in language affects cognition," the report quoted Peter Gordon, the lead researcher as saying.

i believe it.

Huh?

This has been known at least since the 1970s.

faq u dum faqr i dot ned 2 tak rit!!!!!

NEWSPEAK

tagged so I can read the link again tomorrow and forward it to a few folks I know.


Some of the most irrational people I know can't communicate very well... they are otherwise intelligent, but they have poor vocabularies.

"Whu-buh you-be sayin-buh? You-buh be sayin-buh I -buh-gots to-buh learn buh-mo- stuff in-buh school-buh?"

Quoted: bs.viridare.com/blog/images/mushmouth_2.jpg "Whu-buh you-be sayin-buh? You-buh be sayin-buh I -buh-gots to-buh learn buh-mo- stuff in-buh school-buh?"

last time someone threw that pic out, people started callin for a bannination.....

I took Linguistics courses in college 25+ years ago, and even then (writing on a topic about which he knows something) Chomsky was offering pretty compelling evidence of the connection between language and cognition. It is consistent with my observation that stupid people are often unable to unbderstand what other people tell them, or to make themselves understood.

Yeah, this one has been filed under "No Shit" since the 1960s.