Language and cognition influence on evolution of cultures

• Main Author: Leonid Perlovsky
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: HBKU Press 2011-11-01
• Series: QScience Connect
• Online Access: http://www.qscience.com/doi/pdf/10.5339/connect.2011.4

Evolution of cultures is influenced by languages. To understand this influence the paper analyzes how language and cognition interact in thinking. Is language just used for communication of completed thoughts, or is it fundamental for thinking? We review a hypothesis that language and cognition are two separate but closely interacting mechanisms, and identify each of them. Language accumulates cultural wisdom; cognition develops mental representations modeling surrounding world and adapts cultural knowledge to concrete circumstances of life. Language is acquired from surrounding language ‘ready-made’ and therefore can be acquired early in life. Cognition can not be acquired directly from experience; language is a necessary intermediary, a “teacher.” This model is consistent with recent neuroimaging data about cognition, remaining unnoticed by other theories. The proposed theory explains a number of properties of language and cognition, which previously seemed mysterious. It suggests mechanisms by which language grammars influence emotionality of languages and directs cultural evolution. This theory may explain specifics of English and Arabic cultures. We review theoretical and experimental evidence and discuss future directions