Language, Emotions, and Cultures: Emotional Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis
  An emotional version of Sapir-Whorf hypothesis suggests that differences in
language emotionalities influence differences among cultures no less than
conceptual differences. Conceptual contents of languages and cultures to
significant extent are determined by words and their semantic differences;
these could be borrowed among languages and exchanged among cultures. Emotional
differences, as suggested in the paper, are related to grammar and mostly
cannot be borrowed. Conceptual and emotional mechanisms of languages are
considered here along with their functions in the mind and cultural evolution.
A fundamental contradiction in human mind is considered: language evolution
requires reduced emotionality, but "too low" emotionality makes language
"irrelevant to life," disconnected from sensory-motor experience. Neural
mechanisms of these processes are suggested as well as their mathematical
models: the knowledge instinct, the language instinct, the dual model
connecting language and cognition, dynamic logic, neural modeling fields.
Mathematical results are related to cognitive science, linguistics, and
psychology. Experimental evidence and theoretical arguments are discussed.
Approximate equations for evolution of human minds and cultures are obtained.
Their solutions identify three types of cultures: "conceptual"-pragmatic
cultures, in which emotionality of language is reduced and differentiation
overtakes synthesis resulting in fast evolution at the price of uncertainty of
values, self doubts, and internal crises; "traditional-emotional" cultures
where differentiation lags behind synthesis, resulting in cultural stability at
the price of stagnation; and "multi-cultural" societies combining fast cultural
evolution and stability. Unsolved problems and future theoretical and
experimental directions are discussed.
