"[...] the whole 'language dictates or enables thought' thing"
Yeah, I'm treading awfully close to Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis territory here, though in this case I was thinking more about ease of expression than ease of conceptualization.
But I was amused to discover, when I clicked through to the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_Hypothesis) for the SWH while checking the spelling of Whorf's name, that the very discussion that reminded to write about this (flammable/inflammable) was actually something Whorf himself had a hand in!
A good example of the SWH in action comes from Whorf's own work. Whorf was a chemist by training and worked in the insurance industry as a fire prevention engineer. It was on the basis of the SWH he made the historic shift of labeling things likely to ignite as 'flammable' rather than 'inflammable' since his research showed that most people incorrectly understood 'inflammable' to mean 'incapable of catching on fire' rather than 'capable of having flames come into it.' This resulted in fewer fires as people treated flammable objects with caution rather than assuming that they would not catch fire.
(I also found it interesting -- and useful -- to learn on that same page that someone has coined a phrase to describe something unrelated to this discussion, that I've babbled about in various fora in the past: "the euphemism treadmill".)
My shower thoughts aren't always deep. Sometimes they're all wet. Frequently they're along the lines of, "What interesting modifications can I make to the tune that's stuck in my head?" or "How would I phrase a motivational speech to a particular collection of fictional characters?" And the ever-popular, "Damn, I got distracted by that train of thought and now I'm running out of hot water," and, "A little more hot water on that spot there and maybe this muscle will unkink a little."
(no subject)
Yeah, I'm treading awfully close to Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis territory here, though in this case I was thinking more about ease of expression than ease of conceptualization.
But I was amused to discover, when I clicked through to the Wikipedia entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sapir-Whorf_Hypothesis) for the SWH while checking the spelling of Whorf's name, that the very discussion that reminded to write about this (flammable/inflammable) was actually something Whorf himself had a hand in!
(I also found it interesting -- and useful -- to learn on that same page that someone has coined a phrase to describe something unrelated to this discussion, that I've babbled about in various fora in the past: "the euphemism treadmill".)
My shower thoughts aren't always deep. Sometimes they're all wet. Frequently they're along the lines of, "What interesting modifications can I make to the tune that's stuck in my head?" or "How would I phrase a motivational speech to a particular collection of fictional characters?" And the ever-popular, "Damn, I got distracted by that train of thought and now I'm running out of hot water," and, "A little more hot water on that spot there and maybe this muscle will unkink a little."