ABSTRACT
Does the world dictate language or does language dictate a world? Does the real-world existence of a cat and mat motivate the words, “the cat sat on the mat,” complete with definite articles? That is, does the world give rise to things we need to say? Or, instead, does a human conceptual scheme bring into existence (express) a specific sort of world, making prominent only certain kinds of actions, qualities, categories, resemblances, and relations? Do our habitual actions create a language that makes familiar a world? Consider, for example, the worlds that might be produced through conceptual schemes that contain the following words:
Posed in this manner, the basic question does not have an answer. The alternatives, as it were, are too far apart (one world, many worlds). To make progress on this question one needs to explore the causal interactions that mediate between a strict realism and a strong relativism. One needs to examine in greater detail the cognitive systems and mental representations involved in fashioning descriptions that are intermediate between world and language comprehension. How we choose to characterize a thing has an effect on how we see the world, feel, speak, and act.
