Thinking and Intelligence

Running head : LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT

Language and Thought : The Direction of Influence

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Language and Thought : The Direction of Influence

At the time of publication of Orwell 's novel (1949 /1992 , fear , indeed hysteria , over the threat of menace (i .e , communism , was rampant (Zinn , 2005 . Readers were ready for a horrifying projection into the future , a world controlled by a speak , people were turned into docile obedient sheep , fully manipulated to be comfortable with linguistic changes such as reversing war and peace , hate and love , etc

. There 's no question that people still believe in the strong influence of language on thought . Until the past presidential election , since the Vietnam era , candidates would not use the word liberal ' other than to attack an opponent . This time , when the word failed to have an impact , the dreaded S ' word of the past socialist ' was substituted . Based on benign intent , politically correct ' language guides ' have been justified by the belief that words have the power to correct biased thought . Unfortunately , if the belief were true , there wouldn 't be a cycle of politically correct words becoming incorrect ' substituted for new politically correct words ' etc . One needs look no further than the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2003 ) to see how good intentions can degenerate into silliness . Does anyone really think we can reduce homophobia by refraining from phrases such as participants who had...