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Basically because Chomsky says that language is an instinct. When humans learn their native tongue, is because nature has provided them with the ability to do so.
That words are there to express what you want and do not influence the world as it is. Reality dictates language not viceversa. In that way language is only one way to express ideas. We see everything there is to see and in turn name it, and add every kind of grammatic nuisances to our sentences. That means everyone thinks in the same way but with different words and grammatic structures. And we can invent words for previously unexistant ones translated from other languages, or adapt them when the need arises. We can also picture something in our mind, create it and the name it, and even if some doesn't know at first what it means that person can comprehend it. Because language is a tool not a way of thinking
We all eat the same food only cooked differently.
The piraha have their reality formed by their lingüstic deficiencies, (I hope the spelling is correct) if we can call them that, and in doing so are bounded by them. They are unable to see the difference between one and two even though there really is one, or to name colors. So their thinking should be different to ours. If they can't name something it doesn't exists. I was going to say think but they can't think outside their notions of reality.
Then again, maybe they are just a bunch of cocky bastards who think themselves as superior to everyone else in the world and refuse to change, or aknowledge the possibility that their reality is just the same as ours.
Chomsky= Nature (reality) forms language
Piraha (probably)= Language forms reality |
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