Conversation: Language, Thought and Identity

Model answer: I suspect the influence is subtler than the more dramatic claims suggest. Language certainly directs our attention: if your grammar insists on marking certain distinctions, you notice them more readily. But I wouldn't go so far as to say we're prisoners of our vocabulary. People manage to think thoughts for which they have no words, and then invent the words.

Model answer: Something is always lost, but something is gained too. A good translator doesn't reproduce a text so much as recreate its effect, and that involves countless small compromises over rhythm, humour and allusion. Poetry suffers most, I think, though I'd rather read a thoughtful translation than miss a masterpiece altogether.

Model answer: Quite concerned, though perhaps not for the reasons usually given. When a language dies, a unique way of describing the world goes with it, along with oral histories and local knowledge that no dictionary preserves. At the same time, it would be unrealistic to blame English alone; economics and education play an equally significant part.

Model answer: A great deal, unfortunately. Accent and vocabulary trigger assumptions about education, background and even intelligence, often within seconds. It's plainly unfair, since fluency in a prestige dialect says nothing about a person's ability or character. Awareness of the bias is the first step towards resisting it, though few of us are entirely immune.