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Originally Posted by Asper
My dictionary has 650 pages for the English-Thai and 350 for Thai-English.
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That's because Thai could in no way ever be described as a rich language.
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Originally Posted by Guy Mandude
I don't envy ELF learners. Although Thai is a tonal language, how can anyone argue that English is not? There are endless combinations of sound stresses that can change the meaning of a sentence (or word!) in English - so English IS a tonal language, but the rules for using tones are ridiculously complex.
And I'd like to suggest that though the Thai dictionary may be shorter, this does not mean that Thais experience anything less profoundly than a native English speaker. Anyone care to make the argument for linguistic determinism?
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They may well
experience something just as profoundly, but the limitations of the language mean at they cannot express what they
feel as profoundly as if they were using English.
English is a FAR richer language and far more capable of expressing complex feelings, concepts or whatever than Thai, which is very limited in that respect.
And it is precisely that limitation of language that limits the Thai intellect.
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Originally Posted by Cyrille
There's no 'thought' involved in your example.
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Precisely.
One NEEDS vocabulary as a tool to think. How can one think effectively without a tool to express those thoughts?
Which is precisely what language is - a tool. The sharper the tool, the sharper the thoughts. And Thai, as a language, is decidedly dull, in both senses of the word.
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Originally Posted by Boonmee
...So it's in our analysis of an experience that we use language. I think I would concur. But that would suggest that speakers of English would be better able to analyse a situation than those of Thai, right? Or perhaps it would depend on the situation, and a generalisation like this isn't possible?
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Exactly. When a people labiour under a language which is not too capable of expressing complex thoughts, ideas, concepts and emotions, then they are intellectually impoverished due to that very inability.
It is precisely why English speakers can analyse - AND EXPRESS THOUGHTS ON - a situation better than a Thai can.
Which is why Thailand will remain what is still essentially a third world country, despite the trappings of globalisation, such as McDonalds, computers and mobile phones etc., all of which came fromWestern countries with logic at the heart of language