Are there things we can’t describe with the English language? — Cidat
I think the barrier could be vocabulary. There are some words that cannot be translated at all because probably in English speaker country the word doesn't not exist at all. — javi2541997
Are there things we can’t describe with the English language? — Cidat
English is only the "Universal" language, — Gus Lamarch
Yes! You are right. We create words to make them international. Inside plane or journeys vocabulary is more common. For example: Check in when you have to register or just notice that you are already on the airport. Here in Spain we just say check in, we do not translate it to Spanish. — javi2541997
I'm a big fan of English. It's a very powerful language with great flexibility and vitality to import or create new words. It is perhaps weakest in the area of romantic love, but that may be my ignorance. I haven't read romance novels in English yet. — Olivier5
it's the synthesis of more than 2,000 years of Western culture, — Gus Lamarch
Yes. Including pretty much the entire old French lexicon, which got absorbed into English starting from Hasting. — Olivier5
English is the mixture of a Germanic method of language, with a Greco-Roman epistemological field. — Gus Lamarch
Dunno. The OP seems to have been sufficient to create a viable thread. — Banno
The OP hasn't suggested an intention to advocate a position. So, the omission of arguments seems reasonable.b) Able to write a thoughtful OP of reasonable length that illustrates this interest, and to provide arguments for any position you intend to advocate. — T Clark
Granted, but if I do an image search for french grey I'll get any number of different colors. In order for something to be described it is necessary the thing and descriptions correspond. I can describe french grey as the sound dreams make, but it doesn't serve as evidence the feat as been achieved.The point is that despite it being indescribable, there are descriptions. — Banno
Not grey enough for my taste. In my mind it's light grey with a non-obvious hue of blue that perhaps suggest yellow and green might have recently been present. Closer to a svenska blue without so much blue and more grey. It's a bit of a running joke in the fine art department from what I've been told; that french grey escapes any real definition. It is a bespoke grey.Is it what Aussies call "Duck-egg blue"? — Banno
Even things that depend on context and situation? What are the barriers then, language structure or dictionary (wires)? I’m halling about describing in such a way that its meaning is unambiguous in the given context and situation. — Cidat
A bit like "I love you more than words can say"... which says how much I love you; despite saying that I can't say how much I love you. — Banno
Quarks, protons, digital, transgender, Hostess Twinkie, television, internet, Covid 19, HIV, Slim Jim, cell phone, penicillin, GPS, Watergate, infotainment.... — T Clark
When you recognize some things are unsayable or undescribable, you have to give up saying and describing. — Arcturus
but I think those moments only work because theyre not sentence like, not proposition like, theyre gesture-like, theyre a moment-like, something happening like. If you talk of truth-value, and stuff, its not a container that will hold a truth-value past that moment — Arcturus
I do agree with you and I like your way of putting (saying?) it here. But all I'm pointing out is that we have to acknowledge indescribability in order to realize we share the experience of indescribability. If the most over-quoted phrase on TPF is "Whereof one cannot speak, thereof one must be silent", my mental response has always been "you're the one who brought it up, Witty..." — Noble Dust
Get involved in philosophical discussions about knowledge, truth, language, consciousness, science, politics, religion, logic and mathematics, art, history, and lots more. No ads, no clutter, and very little agreement — just fascinating conversations.