Does knowing more words or having a more elaborate language make you "smarter"?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

This here are two posts that wrote, in another forum, any opinions?

Ok, some of you may say im bored, which im not, I just happen to like philosophical questions, and here, at The Straight Dope there are smart people and im interested in listening at there opinions to this question: Does having a more elaborate language (having more words that describe things that currently do not have words attributed to them) make you smarter? After all, thousands of years ago, when the earliest human beings roamed the planet, there language was very limited, and almost non-existant. Over the course of time people started to learn how to communicate, and today we have thousands of diffrent languages all over the world.

For example, does a “typical” educated chinese person have more knowledge than an educated American or educated British simply because there language is more complex? If we were to make up words for feelings or things that dont have words, could I have a better understanding of things? I mean one has to take into account, that a lot or if not most of the knowledge in life a person may have is based on language. If you think about it, if you keep defining a specifc object or “thing” (keep defining is meant in the sense that you look at a word, like “energy” and you get the definition the ability to do work, then you look at the definition of work and you get the transfer of energy from physical system to another, etc etc) you get into a circulatory definition that leads no-where.

Any thoughts?

2

Most languages, although diffrent, describe the same objects, or events, wether this be the description of a paper clip, or the remembrance of world war II. However, what im trying to express actually escpaes verbal definition. What if you knew certain words, or spoke a language much more elaborate than english or chinese or spanish. Hmm, lets see. An example may be:

The word, good, very good, excellent and oustanding all have simialar meanings, for they describe a state of being. However, each of these words, as typed up above in chronological order increase in emotive state. What if I wanted to say: I felt above excellent but below outstanding, would you understand exactly what I was trying to say? What if instead, we had a word that actually fits the feeling im trying to express, if we all knew this word, wouldnt we be a tad bit smarter?

What if we multiply my example above to many words, that describe not only feelings, but all types of objects, events, sensations, etc etc. if we knew all of these new words, would we not be more knowledgable?

I personally do not know, for I do not know such words or language myslef, thus I cannot say if i felt smarter, or more knowledgable than I do now.

3

I think Kelsey Grammar is a very eloquent person, but he openly supports George Bush.

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There are many different types of intelligence, linguistic being one of them. Some are more gifted in that type of intelligence, sure, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that over all they are more intelligent than those that are not.

In 7th grade, I’d go straight from my honors English class to my remedial math class (which consisted of one other kid and I going to the Library to see our special teacher). To this day I can be a veritable genius with the words (not on these boards, of course, I don’t wanna show off, you know :wink: )and yet functionally retarded with the numbers.

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I know quite succinctely my second expression, 'tis always more emotional than the first. My vocabulary expands to my experience, never limited.

6

Yup.

7

I’m not sure if knowing MORE words makes you smarter, but I do know that properly using the ones you think you know makes you appear smarter.

8

Word. There’s nothing more transparent than using five-dollar words in an awkward way when the generic alternative is better (even though there’s less syllables). As a graduate TA, I’m amazed that some students think fancy words without the flair and ability to link them into coherent thought constitutes good writing.

Ultimately, the goal of writing or speaking is to communicate one’s thoughts and ideas clearly. (I suppose some actually work against this goal, but that’s another topic.) If one can do that with a huge vocabulary or a limited one, I’d think the end result is the same.

It does take some skill to know lots of words, and it may well be an aspect of what we deem “intelligence,” but it’s by no means the whole enchilada.

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As someone who is fluent in 5 languages and grew up with English as my 2nd language I definately feel that there are major advantages to English. In South Africa most people throw in a few english words when they are speaking many of our other languages. Even when speaking my mother tongue (Afrikaans) I often use a few english words.
One reason for this is that there are simply more words in english than in most other languages. Another reason is that english is more pervasive. Many technical or scientific terms have no real translation in other languages (or we simply don’t know the translation).
Coming back to the idea of whether having a more elaborate language makes you smarter?
I don’t know if it makes you smarter but it is certainly easier to express your ideas when you have the right “tools” (words) at your disposal.

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I don’t think it makes you smarter. Perhaps it’s just the smarter you are the better you want to be able to present yourself and your ideas.

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As far as a more complicated language vs. intelligence. I don’t think so, perhaps the other way around in some cases even. The attempt to simply a language make more sense than complicating it.

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If you possess the means to say the same thing in many different ways, then (IMO) there is a distinct possibility that:
a)You have more ways to think about it
b) you have a greater understanding of the actual meaning of your words - to be able to successfully find and use synonyms without a thesaurus implies depth and breadth of thought, as well as just plain knowledge.

Furthermore, I would say that knowing more words is (or can be) both cause and effect of greater intelligence, because intelligence very often includes a spirit of inquiry.

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That was very well said. You smart bastard you. :wink:

BTW, That should’ve been to “simplify” in my previous post.

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“Someone who knows something but doesn’t know how to explain it, doesn’t know it.” My Mom, original source unknown.

Knowing* more words doesn’t make you smarter but it makes you better at comunicating what you know/feel/think.

  • This isn’t just knowing the “groups of letters”, but how and when to use them, of course.

FWIW, I’m a graphical person: when I’m trying to solve a complex problem, I think in pictures. So I’m better at communicating with graphical people, people to whom I can just draw a diagram instead of having to translate into words. With non-graphical people, I am a lot more likely to run into misunderstandings; but the greater my vocabulary, the more likely I am to be able to adapt my language to theirs, thus avoiding misunderstandings.

We need a shorter word for “misunderstanding”. Freakin’ long one…

15

Indubitably.

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I once said in a work context, to my boss: “the supplier said he’s vacillating on whether he’ll achieve the delivery date”. My boss replied “no he didn’t; only you would say that.” He was right. Made me feel like a putz. So, not always.

17

No, but being smart often makes you know more words and have a more elaborate language.

18

Beware the Speech class described as: Learn to talk good.

Beware the Writing class described as: Learn to write good.

Beware the Language class described as: Get more words so you can be more smart.

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Each word has attached to it a concept, notion, thing, fact, job, &c. Having few words limits one’s ability to communicate, because fewer words are available to reflect the rich human experience. But, even more, we think with language, right? We may handle some problems with internal pictures, but we also use internal monologues and dialogues to process ideas and concepts. Suppose one has to contemplate the world using a small subset of the available words, will they really be sufficient to handle the job?

In addition, it is often the case that so-called synonyms have subtle differences that are quite important for communicating an idea. If you say, “You really should meet Gina, she’s really confident,” I will get a different picture than if you use “savoir faire” or “aplomb.” Why? Because they mean different things.

Having a larger framwork of words & language in which to incorporate new ideas and concepts will make learning and understanding them much easier, which means one can learn faster, and use those new knowledge elements to enhance learning even more. As an example, think I learned more in a PhD core year in economics than I learned in my entire undergraduate econ major, and I learned faster.

I work in local government. It appears clear that linguistic ability and smarts are related, and based on some special examples, I think language may be the key to learning conceptually a lot of stuff. First, we have a guy who appears to be mildly retarded living in our community. The guy can’t communicate any ideas and the only tools he has are the most gross; however, he is smart enough to continue outrageous behavior without actually breaking any laws. He’s clearly smart enough, but he has limited himself to a few focused questions, like How to not violate the junk ordinance while still having a lot of junk? Based on my experience, he could have the ability to communicate about the community and understand what’s going on if he had the framework in which to understand it all.

So, I guess at this stage, I’m in the better language & vocabulary generally helps improve smarts.

20

Actually, I doubt that any grammar supports Mr. Bush as he so often chooses to not support grammar.

(I do not believe that supporting or opposing any particular politician is an indication of intelligence or its lack, but this was too good a straight line to ignore.)