“If words stood for pre-existing concepts, they would all have exact equivalents in meaning from one language to the next.” In class, we discussed how words don’t have exact equivalents in every language. There are words and concepts in some languages that don’t exist/have a direct translation in others. I find that fascinating because that means learning a new language opens up a new way of thinking and seeing the world. It presents different ideologies and ways of describing how we feel. That could mean that by learning a new language we could have a better understanding of our feelings, who we are, and why we perceive things the way we do.
Language can even affect how we see color, which some may think of as objective and universal, with the exception of people that are color blind. In Vietnamese, there isn’t a separate word for green. The same word is used to refer to blue or green. Instead, the sky and leaves are used as reference points. “Blue like the sky” or “blue like the leaves.” This suggests that while in Vietnamese there isn’t language to distinguish between the two, people still see the same green as everyone else and can recognize there’s a difference. However, some studies suggest that we don’t all see the same colors as each other and that language does influence how we see color. The Himba tribe of northern Namibia also does not have a blue-green distinction. In a study, Himba people were shown a group of squares, all of them were green except for one cyan square and had to quickly identify which square was different from the others. They had difficulty identifying which one was different because they use the same word for both colors. In contrast, they were shown another group of circles with different shades of green and were able to identify which one was different much faster than Westerners. That’s because the two different shades have different words in their language while a Westerner would just see a bunch of practically identical green boxes.
This makes me curious about translating and understanding literary works. We discussed in class how once a work is published an author doesn't have any more control over the meaning/interpretation than the reader. Just because the author has an intended meaning doesn't mean the reader will take away the same meaning/interpretation. However, there's definitely a lot of different interpretations between readers as well. Differences in language could impact our understanding of works. This brings up the question if translated works are really the same story/experience.
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