2. The relation "language" - "sensations"

Sensation is a reflection of the individual properties of objects and phenomena, which occurs with the direct influence of stimuli on the receptors of the human body. Sensation is closely connected with perception, as well as with other components-phenomena of the psyche (thinking, personality traits, etc.), which can influence the processes of the origin of sensations.

As noted earlier, the relationship between language and psyche [163] is ambiguous. This fully concerns the relation “language” (speech activity in the language plan) - “sensations”.

Sensations can occur and occur without the use of language (in speech activity), in which we are constantly convinced of the experience of our everyday life: a huge number of various exteroceptive, proprioceptive and interoceptive sensations are performed without the participation of language. For example, sensing heat, we do not always say: “I am warm”; when you hear a rumble, you don’t necessarily say: “[Something] rumbles,” or, in pain, we don’t always say: “Oh, it hurts”, etc. [164]

At the same time, language (through speech activity) can exert different effects on sensations. In a person who has reached a certain age, the feeling is “humanized”, socialized, and therefore their connection with the language is obvious. So, through the language it is possible to cause some sensations. If, for example, in a situation where there is no lemon, a person says (“produces” in terms of inner speech): “Sour lemon”, he usually has a sour feeling. Similarly, you can call those or other olfactory, tactile and even pain, as well as some other sensations. Therefore, the traditional statement that sensations arise with the direct action of stimuli on receptors cannot be considered as “absolute”.

The language is “able” to eliminate (“remove”) a number of sensations, such as pain: “No, it does not hurt me!”, Or hearing: “I do not hear!”; weaken or, on the contrary, strengthen them (it’s not for nothing that those who constantly talk about their "sores" have these "sores" and hurt more). Similarly, through speech (using appropriate language signs), it is also possible to purposefully “shift” attention.

Speech is capable in situations of uncertainty to help determine and clarify the modality of sensations, their localization, temporal sequence and duration.

Complex sensations often verbalize. We say: "Soft sound", "warm sound", "velvet voice", "cold color", "bitter smell", or as the poet said: "weary twilight of spirits."

Often, language (speech) gives a setting to one or another characteristic of the upcoming sensation: “This object is soft, and this is hard”; “The water is probably cold,” “Heavy is heavy,” etc. I must say that these settings do not always correspond to the objective characteristics of the perceived (perceived) things or phenomena, but we often act according to these very settings. And here there are cases when the language distorts the objective characteristics of certain objects or phenomena. For example, if a smooth board says: “the board is rough”, then we sometimes feel an imaginary roughness. Since the so-called "organic sensations" are associated with needs and often with volitional tension, bright emotional coloring, these sensations, as a rule, include language assessment: "pleasant" ("unpleasant"); “Good” (“bad”), “rough voice”, “disgusting taste”, etc.

Language can enrich our senses. For example, we say: "red as poppy color"; "The sound is quiet, like the sound of reeds", etc.

Although language (through the medium of speech) has different effects on sensations, it nevertheless does not determine the genesis and manifestations of sensations. They are determined by the physiological capabilities of a person and, most importantly, the culture (in its broadest sense) in which the individual was formed and lives. The picture of the world is not given language. Language is used in the processes of cognition of the world around to the extent necessary for the needs of non-language activities (23, 218, etc.).

In this regard, the problem of the perception and sensation of color and its designation is traditionally discussed in human psychology. [165] Some researchers believe that the language determines the ability to color discrimination (its volume, differentiation of shades, etc.). Other researchers believe that not language (speech), but non-linguistic experience, the needs of a person living in the “continuum” of a particular culture, determine the process of color distinction. It seems that the second point of view is also legitimate in its own way. Indeed, a southerner, unlike a resident of the Far North, may not distinguish between many shades of snow, but not because there are no corresponding names in his native language, but because in his life experience this was not important to him. If he ever had such a need, he will learn these differences in his new experience and will find the corresponding verbal designations (characteristics) in his native language. For example, such definitions as "silver-blue", "whitish-gray", "sparkling" and even for example, "aluminum". Thus, a differentiated sensation of the world or other psychic phenomena (which will be discussed later) is determined not only by language (speech), but also by non-linguistic cultural influences and individual social experience of a person.