Language Equals Thought: Difference between revisions

{{examples}}

== Comic Books ==

{{quote|Woman in conquered Greece: How many languages even '''''have''''' a word for “killed every 10th person”?}}

* Subverted in [[Justice League of America|JLA]], in one issue of [[Grant Morrison]]'s run. [[Mad Scientist|Mad scientists]] T.O. Morrow and Dr. Ivo decide to find out which one of them is the better scientist by creating an android super-hero named Tomorrow Woman to invade the League and then destroy it. Morrow (in charge of the brain while Ivo was in charge of the body) deliberately leaves the word "freedom" out of her vocabulary. Despite this, when the time for her to destroy the JLA, she defies her very programming, making a [[Heroic Sacrifice]] to save the other members of the JLA. When Superman asks her remains why she did that in the last seconds of her activation, she says [[I Die Free|"word not present in vocabulary"]].

* In a deleted scene from ''[[Avatar (film)|Avatar]]'', it is stated that the Na'vi do not have their own word for "lie," but were taught the word [[Humans Are the Real Monsters|by humans]]. The canonicity of this statement is debatable, since it ''is'' a deleted scene, and no Na'vi dictionaries on the web make any note of "lie" being a loanword or anything. It's unlikely, however, that they do not understand the concept of deception, being hunters.

* ''[[Dead Poets Society]]'': Keating insists that the student must use rich language. "Very tired" is strictly forbidden—use "exhausted".

 

== Literature ==

* ''Babel-17'' by [[Samuel Delany]] is built wholly around this trope. The smallest (and least spoilish) example is a race of aliens whose language is based almost entirely around temperature gradients but have no word for "house" - because of this, they build incomprehensible starships that look like a mass of strung-together boiled eggs. And of course, {{spoiler|the titular language enables extremely fast thinking and enhanced spatial awareness}}.

* [[Discworld]]:

{{quote|Show a dwarf a rock and he sees, for example, an inferior piece of crystalline sulphite of barytes.}}

** And then there's how dwarves feel about gold, which is almost a language in and of itself.

*** Which, while awesome, is also kind of silly: we have words describing air and wind after all...

** Played straight with the D'regs, who have the same word for 'stranger' and 'target'. Many Native American languages—Navajo and Apache, for instance—use the same word for 'foreigner' and 'enemy', so that's not that much of a stretch. 'D'reg' wasn't even their original name, it was just the word used by all their neighbors for 'enemy'. They adopted the name out of pride. Oh, and their word for 'freedom' is the same as their word for 'fighting'.

{{quote|'''Vimes:''' They certainly make their language do a lot of work, don't they?}}

* In ''[[The Office]]'', Michael claims that the Jamaicans don't have a word "impossible". Jim promptly points out that they do: {{spoiler|"impossible".}}

* In [[George Carlin]]'s special ''Doin' It Again'', he refers to this trope, claiming that "We do think in language, so the quality of our thoughts and ideas can only be as good as the quality of our ''language''."

 

== Tabletop Games ==

* In the Palladium game, the Wolfen language uses different tenses depending on whether the speaker is dominant to whomever they're addressing, or submissive to them. Equality of status does not exist in wolf society, or in theirs.

 

* ''[[Avenue Q]]'' [[Hangs a Lampshade]] on this trope in their song "[[Schadenfreude]]":

{{quote|'''Nicky''': Oh, Schadenfreude, huh? What's that, some kinda [[Godwin's Law|Nazi word]]?

'''Nicky''': "Happiness at the misfortune of others"? That ''is'' German! }}

 

* The Morrigi from ''[[Sword of the Stars]]'' have no word for 'rank'; their society is a meritocracy based on rule by the one with the highest degree of 'merit', and every Morrigi knows more or less instinctively which Morrigi in any given group has the most merit, who would replace him if the most worthy was killed, and so on. The closest thing they have is the word "aanigi'dha", "worthiness-to-lead-people".

* Every cult language in ''[[Nexus War]]''. The language of the god of society and cooperation is easy to learn, the god of law's is extremely specific and long-winded, the god governing the physical laws of the universe has a language better suited for concepts than actions, and so forth.

** More fitting this trope is that apparently, there is no difference in the dragon language between "debating" and "fighting", relating to how their very voices are their greatest weapon.

 

* In ''[[Homestuck]]'', the Troll language word for 'friend' is the same as the word for 'enemy.' [[With Friends Like These...|Considering the general nature of Troll relationships]], this is quite fitting.

** The Troll language is also [http://www.mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004292 much more complex] than the human language when it comes to the subject of romance. Human culture would, for example, have difficulty diagnosing kismesis - but would also have trouble with moirallegiance (and would be likely to consider it extremely unhealthy). Troll culture, on the other hand, has no term for homosexuality, since troll reproduction works so that any pairing can produce progeny (it's complex, and it involves birth by proxy). This disconnect was only [https://web.archive.org/web/20130815093243/http://mspaintadventures.com/?s=6&p=004528 recently learned]:

** In another comic, Black Mage says that no word can accurately describe his hatred for Fighter, so he asks Red Mage to help him invent one. RM suggests several good candidates, but BM goes with "[[Neologism|Omniloathe]]". Fighter, [[The Ditz|as usual]], [[Completely Missing the Point|misinterprets this]] and [[Insult Backfire|spends the next few minutes inventing new words to describe what good buddies he and BM are]].

 

* From [[Things Mr. Welch Is No Longer Allowed to Do In An RPG]]:

{{quote|1849: There is too an elven word for "[[The Casanova|monogamy]]".

* Inverted with the [[SCP Foundation]]'s [http://scp-wiki.wikidot.com/scp-444 SCP-444]: A memetic virus which, once heard by a human, starts to alter their brain and simplify the language. The more they speak it, the more docile and less individualized they become. It's virulent ''and'' hereditary in infants—the Foundation considers it a precursor to an alien invasion.

* Tylansian in ''[[Orion's Arm]]'' uses the same words for "truth teller" and "complaining child" while the word for "liar" also means "successful man". It has often been stated as a cause for their ruling class' [[Chronic Backstabbing Disorder]] and Tylansia's general [[Medieval Stasis|stagnation]] (and ludicrous propaganda films that are strangely popular in the civilized galaxy)

 

== Western Animation ==