Linguistic constraints don't necessarily constrain how we think that they do shape it perhaps in some subtle ways. What language does is it makes certain things easier to express and certain things harder. So if you have a musical notation, it'll be quite easy to write stuff down if it stays in one key. If it's jumping around all over the place, there's all sharps and flats up to appear. And if you have to then suddenly notate things which are in between semitones, I guess really tricky or if the time signature is extremely peculiar. But once we look at it altogether, I think every language have a way of expressing ourselves.
Morten Christiansen is Professor of Psychology at Cornell University and Nick Chater is Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School. Together, they've written The Language Game, a new book which explores the science and psychology of language and some of its mysteries too. Hosting the discussion is journalist Christine Ro, whose work covers areas ranging from science and culture to international development.
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