Thinking through time...language and tenses

Hi again,

There is much to update you on, including my trip to Lake Atitlan this past weekend, but that will have to wait for an Internet signal strong enough to post photos!  For now, I am reflecting on tenses and time as they relate to language.  As posted previously, the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is often on my mind as I work my way through language school here in Antigua, Guatemala. This concept is all about if and how much language influences or determines the way in which humans think. While most anthropologists have moved far away from the linguistic determinism side of the spectrum (ling. determ. is the idea that our language absolutely determines our thoughts), there is still little doubt that our construction of language does influence the way we see the world around us.

This is very apparent to me as I've worked my way through so many tenses (times) in the Spanish language in the last couple of weeks. Most striking are the types of time or tenses that exist in Spanish that do not exist in English. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the existence of two different words for the concept "to be" in Spanish (and their uses in different instances, including those that are more or less permanent) is a different way of marking the permanence of a state of being. For example, in the case of health or feelings the way of saying this in Spanish shows the impermanence of this condition, while in English it does not.

Similarly, there are various tenses (times) that do not exist in the English language. Spanish is filled with tenses that are used to indicate if something is securely going to happen or is only an idea. Using the same verb and conjugating it in a different tense changes the meaning completely. In one instance you might indicate you will be doing something tomorrow and in another your tense choice will suggest that you hope to do it someday but it is in doubt. 

These constructions influence you to think about the nature of what you are saying in its relationship to time- not just past, present, or future, but if this is a continuous act or a specific moment in time, if this is something that is just an idea or actual did or will occur. 

Initially it just seems like a lot to remember when learning a new language, but the more I employ it the more I realize how much the structure of the language influences the way I am thinking about the world.  I 'm not asked by the English language to address how likely something is to happen when I select which tense tense to use when conjugating verbs. I might use words such as probably, likely, or will in either language, but the additional step of purposefully selecting which tense to use in Spanish has really pushed me to think differently about the issues of timing and likelihood of occurrence in a different way than I would in English. 

As I think through time and tenses, I am thinking anew about the relationship between thought and language. I am also struck that it is only in studying another language that I can see how my native language constructs time in its own way.



More soon!
Chris