Alanna Dailey - Language Shapes Reality

http://www.newsweek.com/2009/07/08/what-s-in-a-word.print.html
In a Newsweek article “What’s in a Word,” Sharon Begley explains the phenomenon of how language shapes our thoughts. When the Viaduct de Millau, the largest bridge in the world, was built in the south of France, newspapers from Germany used words such as “elegance,” “breathtaking,” and “lightness” to describe the bridge. French newspapers used words such as “immense” and concrete giant” to describe the bridge. Ironically the word for bridge is masculine in French and feminine in French. Another difference is languages that have more words to describe objects. For example, the Aboriginal Kuuk Thaayorre use compass directions for every special cue rather than right or left. So they would say something like “there is an ant on your southeast leg.” The use of this language allows them to navigate in unfamiliar surroundings better than English speakers.
Going off this article, I think that how we describe nature shapes how we respond to it. For most people, nature and animals is something to be owned or dominated, and most do not find the idea of camping pleasant. Even words that are used to describe nature are sometimes negative: wild, uncivilized, primitive, or a world separate from the human world. I think this help explains our abuse of nature and a reason behind animal extinction. Oral cultures often associate animals and nature with the sacred and their ancestors, therefore their descriptions them are more positive.