Do the languages we speak shape the way we think? Do they merely
express thoughts, or do the structures in languages (without our
knowledge or consent) shape the very thoughts we wish to
express? Take "Humpty Dumpty sat on a..." Even this snippet of a
nursery rhyme reveals how much languages can differ from one
another. In English, we have to mark the verb for tense; in this
case, we say "sat" rather than "sit." In Indonesian you need not
(in fact, you can't) change the verb to mark tense. In Russian,
you would have to mark tense and also gender, changing the verb
if Mrs. Dumpty did the sitting. You would also have to decide if
the sitting event was completed or not. If our ovoid hero sat on
the wall for the entire time he was meant to, it would be a
different form of the verb than if, say, he had a great fall. In
Turkish, you would have to include in the verb how you acquired
this information. For example, if you saw the chubby fellow on
the wall with your own eyes, you'd use one form of the verb, but
if you