# Language and Worldview

*Exported from [Holy-Writings.com](https://www.holy-writings.com/) on 2026-06-21 — 1 clipping.*

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Alvino E. Fantini, Language and Worldview, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Published in the Journal of Bahá’í Studies Vol. 2, number 2 (1989)
> © Association for Bahá’í Studies 1989
> 
> Language and Worldview*
> Alvino E. Fantini
> *This paper was presented in Ottawa, October 7–10, 1988, at the Association’s Thirteenth Annual Conference,
> “Towards a Global Civilization.”
> 
> Abstract
> Languages are more than mere tools. They are, in fact, paradigms of a view of the world. Knowledge of more than
> one language holds promise for an expanded worldview, for understanding other people on their own terms, Viewed
> this way, bilingualism becomes an essential ingredient in the formation of interculturally minded individuals.
> 
> Résumé
> Les langues sont plus que de simples outils. En réalité, elles constituent des paradigmes d’une façon de voir le
> monde. Le fait de connaître plus d’une langue nous permet d’avoir un esprit plus large sur le monde et de
> comprendre les autres sur leur propre terrain. De cette façon, le bilinguisme devient un élément essentiel pour
> former des individus d’orientation interculturelle.
> 
> Resumen
> Los idiomas son más que solo instrumentos. Son, de hecho, paradigmas de una manera de ver el mundo. El
> conocimiento de más de un idioma sustenta la esperanza de una cosmovisión más amplia, ayudando a la
> comprensión de pueblos ajenos en base a sus propias culturas y costumbres. Visto nsí, el bilinguismo se torna en
> ingrediente escncial para la formación de individuos de mentalidad intercultural.
> 
> ¿Mamá, por qué yo nací como nene?
> ¿Por qué no nací como Dios?
> ¿O como el sol… como una bola de fuego?
> 
> Mamá, why was I born a little boy?
> Why wasn’t I born like God?
> Or like the sun… like a ball of fire?
> (Mario, age 5)
> 
> W      e do not usually think about our ability to speak. Most of us simply take language for granted, that is, until we
> are in situations where we do not share a common tongue. Intercultural contact often raises numerous issues
> related to language, culture, and one’s worldview.
> 
> Language: A Worldview
> Lack of awareness of our own language and language use arises from the fact that as we master our native
> tongue, it in turn masters us. Acquisition of our mother tongue provides language not only as a “neutral” system but
> also as a medium (or paradigm) that directly influences our entire lives. In linguistic terms, this notion is known as
> “language determinism and relativity.” In other words, the language we acquire influences the way we construct our
> vision of the world (hence, language determinism). And if this is so, then most probably different languages provide
> different visions of that same world (language relativity).
> Considering the words of each language, for example, helps us to understand what this means. English,
> Chinese, or Russian words often do not directly equate; rather, they represent different systems for classifying,
> segmenting, and categorizing our experiences. For this reason, they orient their users to particular ways of viewing
> the world. This notion is the basis for the determinism and relativity hypothesis formulated many years ago by the
> linguist Benjamin L. Whorf and which is still debated today (Whorf, Language). Although many people do not
> accept Whorf’s idea entirely, it cannot be wholly dismissed either. The influence of each language on a speaker’s
> perception and cognition remains an intriguing question.
> Language: A Wondrous Thing
> By five years of age, children already demonstrate the ability to use language to formulate profound questions
> such as the one at the beginning of this article. Unaware of their own amazing feat—mastery of complex patterns of
> sounds, forms, and grammar—children acquire their native tongue almost unthinkingly. Language acquisition is
> almost incidental to their efforts to explore, to question, to communicate.
> And language appears to be species-specific. It is believed, in fact, that words are what make the anthropoid
> human. This may explain the biblical statement: “In the beginning was the Word…” (John 1:1). Yet, language has
> also been termed Original Sin—a lie since word creations substitute for the thing signified. Indeed, as we master
> words, we sometimes fail to differentiate between the verbal symbol and the reality for which it stands. Yet, words
> serve only to evoke conceptually what is meant, thereby providing vicarious experiences for both speaker and
> hearer. Once acquired, words are a powerful influence throughout our entire lives, mediating all that we think, say,
> and do.
> Languages are also liberating. Our ability to symbolize permits us to move conceptually through time and
> space. We recall and tell of things past, or we move ahead into the future, merely by using words. So great in fact is
> our faith in words that we often viscerally feel the “reality” of being in the past or future described. Yet obviously
> we can neither retrieve the past nor ensure the future but can only symbolize about them. We always remain
> physically in the present moment and space.
> The child of three has already learned of such power, as when recounting an unfortunate event at the nursery
> and crying at the recollection. Or, consider the child of four who speaks of dinosaurs with visible delight even
> though he or she only “knows” of them through language, the preserver of our collective human memory. Language
> aids the imagination, the make-believe; hence the child can put into words wild fantasies, as when describing, in
> exquisite detail and great emotion, an encounter with an awful witch. Real or imagined, language brings into
> existence even that which may not exist at all!
> 
> Language: A Two-Edged Sword
> Language not only aids thought but at times also constrains it, even contradicting our experiences. Two
> examples help to illustrate this: In the first, the child taking a cognitive test in kindergarten is asked to point to one
> of four pictures best depicting the concept “fastest.” Confronted with choices of a donkey, an elephant, a car, and an
> airplane, the child points unhesitatingly to the elephant and describes their great speed, which the child has observed
> in Tarzan movies on television, and then shows by a moving hand how slowly airplanes move across the sky.
> Through language, the child will eventually “learn” to invert notions derived from direct personal perceptions. In an
> opposite case, the child panics when taken aboard an airplane and begins screaming, kicking, and crying. No
> attempts to ease the child’s fears are calming, until moments later the crying ceases abruptly when the child realizes
> he or she has neither become tiny nor disappeared, as so often observed of others who boarded planes and flew off
> into the sky. In each case, language was used to “explain” (or contradict) perceptions (Fantini, Language
> Acquisition).
> So much of learning throughout life is accomplished through Language, augmenting (and sometimes
> constraining) the possibilities of what we can understand. Through language we can consider the impossible and
> explore the unknowable, as with the five-year-old quoted at the beginning of this article, pondering death and
> yearning for immortality. Since language is with us from our earliest years, it is difficult to imagine what life might
> be like without the ability to symbolize and to communicate with others.
> 
> Language as Communicative Competence
> Language is not only an ability to articulate but also all that is involved in interacting with others: (1) a
> linguistic dimension (the sounds, forms, and grammar of language); (2) a paralinguistic dimension (the tone, pitch,
> volume, speed, and other affective aspects of how we say things); (3) an extralinguistic component (all the non-
> verbal dimensions—gestures, movements, grimaces, etc.); and (4) a sociolinguistic dimension (i.e., the different
> ways or styles used to express ourselves in each new situation). Every individual learns and masters all of these
> dimensions as part of his or her total ability to communicate. By five, in fact, children are so competent in all areas
> that they can easily judge the correctness or nativeness of other speakers. Moreover, children exposed to two or
> more systems early on, display the ability to master two or more languages.
> 
> Language and Intercultural Contact
> It would seem, therefore, that individuals exposed to a second language may develop a differing or an
> expanded vision of the world. These visions are affected not only by the different constructs of the world inherent in
> each language system but also by the differing interactional strategies used by speakers of each system. Knowing
> more than one language allows participation with individuals of differing cultural groups, expanding qualitatively
> our social possibilities. A simple graph may help to place the bits aid pieces forming this worldview into a cohesive
> whole:
> 
> Interaction among these components (sometimes referred to as form, meaning, and function by linguists) are the
> basis for one’s worldview. Even more fascinating is that the components vary from culture to culture in all aspects,
> hence the differing visions of the world held by each group. Thus, the process of learning a second language (or
> becoming bilingual) is more than mastery of a tool: it may effect changes in the components and cause a
> reconfiguring of their interrelationships (note the dotted lines)—in other words, an expansion of one’s view of the
> world as well.
> Intercultural experiences provide an injection of another language-culture. Contact with individuals of other
> language and cultural backgrounds not only opens a door to exploring another worldview but also ultimately
> provokes questions about one’s own values and assumptions. Intercultural exposure provides opportunities not only
> for learning about others but also for gaining new perspectives on oneself. It affords an excellent way to understand
> language and culture as mediators in our lives. The fabled Don Juan recognized this and often chided his apprentice
> Castaneda, saying: “Who in hell do you think you are to say the world is thus and so just because you think it is.
> Who gave you the authority? The world is a strange place… full of mystery and awe” (Castaneda, A Separate
> Reality).
> 
> Language and Culture Interrelated
> Most persons concerned with language (such as language teachers, translators and interpreters, bilingual
> educators, intercultural trainers) acknowledge that language and culture are interrelated. Yet they often lack explicit
> understanding of this interrelationship and how to address it, except in often trivial ways. An example is the teacher
> of Spanish who shows slides of a bullfight in an attempt to introduce “culture,” or the intercultural expert who deals
> with generic cross-cultural communication processes but fails to acknowledge the specifics of how a given language
> mediates those processes. For the language teacher, the issue is rather how to teach language within a constant
> culture reference of which that language is an expression. To state the problem another way, the task is not simply to
> teach new ways to say old things (i.e., new symbols for old thoughts) but rather to aid in the discovery that a new
> language system leads to new ways of perceiving, of classifying and categorizing, of interacting, and to new ways of
> thinking about the world. For the interpreter and translator, the challenge of how to convey thought not only across
> languages but also across cultures is a constant challenge. For the bilingual educator, this understanding becomes a
> source for a renewed commitment toward the development and maintenance of bilingualism not only for the limited-
> English speaker but also for all children. And for the intercultural expert, the issue may be to integrate language as a
> more prominent aspect of intercultural orientation, not simply as “tool” but as the system that best reflects and
> affects culture.
> The psycholinguistic distinction of compound and coordinate bilingualism touches on this point. On the one
> hand, compound bilingualism is a type of bilingualism that typically develops in classrooms where the target
> language is learned with and through constant reference to one’s native tongue. The student learns new
> “equivalents” for saying what she or he has always said. Coordinate bilingualism, on the other hand, results from
> acquiring each language directly, in separate contexts and with no reference to the other (as with so many bilingual
> children), Each language used reflects different ways of perceiving, conjuring up different configurations of the
> world, and is communicated through very distinct modes.
> Classroom language learners, however, are not always limited to compound functioning, nor are coordinate
> bilinguals limited to separate functioning. Increased use of a second language in naturalistic settings may move the
> person toward coordinate functioning. The kind of classroom activities selected may also further or hamper this
> goal. Likewise, analytical study of language may cause the coordinate bilingual to become increasingly aware of
> connections across two formerly unrelated codes.
> 
> Transcending
> For some, second language learning may always be strictly an intellectual endeavor. But for those who want a
> second language to interact and communicate, it may lead to much more. Acquisition of another language and entry
> into another culture offer the possibility of transcending the limitations of one’s own worldview. “If you want to
> know about water, don’t ask a goldfish,” someone once said. Those who have never learned a second language nor
> entered another culture may be much like the goldfish, taking for granted the milieu in which it has always existed.
> As people concerned with languages and cultures, then, we recognize their importance toward entering
> another worldview. Entry into another worldview most probably will result in developing an appreciation for the
> diversity and richness of human beings, along with a concomitant shift of perspective. This shift in perspective is
> what one writer described as “the greatest revolution in the world—one which occurs with the head, within the
> mind” (Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy). We may indeed have a significant role in that revolution through our
> lifelong involvement with languages and cultures—one which leads to greater tolerance, respect, and understanding.
> For this to happen, we need the attitudes, awareness, knowledge, and skills that will make us better global citizens,
> able to empathize with and to understand other persons on their own terms. Exposure to more than one language and
> one culture in a positive context offers such a promise.
> 
> Bibliography
> Adler, Peter S. “Beyond Cultural Identity.” In Intercultural Communication. Ed. Samovar & Porter. 2d ed. Belmont:
> Wadsworth Publishing, 1976.
> 
> Baetens-Beardsmore, Hugo. Bilingualism: Basic Principles. Multilingual Matters. Clevedon, England: Tieto, 1982.
> 
> Castaneda, Carlos. A Separate Reality. New York: Pocket Books, 1973.
> 
> Fantini, Alvino E. Exploring Language and Culture. In preparation.
> ———. Language Acquisition of a Bilingual Child. Multilingual Matters. Clevedon, England: Tieto, 1985; also La
> adquisición del lenguaje en un niño bilingüe, Barcelona: Editorial Herder, 1982.
> 
> Ferguson, Marilyn. The Aquarian Conspiracy. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, 1980. (Introduction, Chapters 1, 13).
> 
> Grosjean, François. Life with Two Languages: An Introduction to Bilingualism. Cambridge: Harvard University
> Press, 1982.
> 
> Hakuta, Kenji. Mirror of Language: The Debate on Bilingualism. New York: Basic Books, 1986.
> 
> Halliday, M. A. K. Language as Social Semiotic. Baltimore: University Park Press, 1978. (Chapter 2).
> 
> Pearce, Joseph Chilton. The Crack in the Cosmic Egg. New York: Washington Square Press, 1971.
> 
> Whorf, Benjamin L. Language, Thought and Reality. Cambridge: M. I. T. Press, 1956. (Preface and pp. 246–70).
>
> — *Language and Worldview (Used by permission of the curator)*