Sentences in Greek, possibles

John Schwandt jschwandt at nsa.edu
Thu Aug 8 14:41:12 EDT 2002


Mark Wilson wrote:

 >Yes, I AM claiming that no one THINKS in their second language. And
 >I AM also saying that it is impossible to THINK in a dead language,
 >no matter how much one devotes himself/herself to studying it.

Mark, are you fluent in any other language besides English?  I would 
enjoy hearing testimony from people who are fluent in a second language 
and have spent significant time in the culture which surrounds the 
second language.  I know it is possible to think in new languages.  I 
have experienced thought in Greek and then a moment later realized that 
I was thinking in Greek.   I have dreamed in Greek.  It must be possible 
to think in a second language.  How else is learning new aspects of our 
own language possible?  Right now my two year old son does not even come 
close to using relative clauses and I confuse him if I use them.  Yet he 
can and does think in English (as well as thinking non linguistically 
-lets not linguists corner the market on thought).  Relative clauses are 
a foreign "language" to him, yet he will soon learn how to understand 
them as well as use them in his thinking process.

He is also a good counterexample to your "1 percent" concern.  He 
probably only knows 1%  of all the English that I know.  I am a far cry 
from knowing what percentage of English I know.  No one knows 100% of 
any language not even great minds like Shakespeare.  Languages are 
always in a state of change.  Even "dead languages" (BTW biblical Greek 
is no more a dead language than Elizabethan English is.  At most it is 
merely a dead dialect) when view as a snapshot have forms and syntax 
that are questionably part of the language or vary from village to 
village.  Nevertheless my son at his 1% level is able to think in 
English.  To say that since we only have 1% of biblical Greek (I have no 
idea how you could even assess such a percentage without knowing the 
whole), there is no way we can think in biblical Greek is a non sequitur.

One more counterexample:
I have spent some time in Greece working toward fluency in modern Greek. 
 I often talk to my son in biblical Greek and use many Greek picture 
books.  I am convinced that when he wishes to give thanks for something 
he often thinks EUXARISTW and he often thinks "thank you."  Even if it 
is only thinking one word, I believe that is sufficient to prove that we 
can learn to think  in another language.


ERRWSO (I thought it)
John Schwandt




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