Expanding your language

How might you describe your wellness if you only had 100 words in your lexicon? There are an estimated 250,000 words in the English language alone. How many words do you think you know in your native language or indeed any language?

The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said, “The limits of my language means the limits of my world.” You can only describe what is going on for you in your own world with whatever expressive, communicative tools are available to you. For example, can you have déjà vu if you don’t know what it is?

If you look in a dictionary you see that words are used to describe other words. So, the more words you know the more words you get to understand, through knowing the words that are being used to describe the new words.

The same goes for ideas, concepts and theories. Once you have grasped a simple concept, you can then use that knowledge to appreciate more complex theories; which you can then hopefully apply back to yourself and your own wellbeing, using words, words and more words.

Could this be a roundabout way of encouraging you to expand your horizons with new words and new ideas? Probably.