"Linguistic determinism" is the idea that the words you use to communicate have a profound effect on how you think. An example is the Newspeak language of George Orwell's novel 1984. Another example might be your mother threatening to wash your mouth out with soap. But is there any truth to it? Further research shows that what we think and how we feel is fairly innate, no matter what language we speak or culture we originate from. It appears that the inability to express ourselves has more to do with the limits of our language than with the malleability of our thoughts. We have more control over the language than the language has control over us. "Language relativism" is a whole other subject, and Tom Scott tries to explain the difference to us. It's a deep and complicated subject, but we don't have to understand all the intricacies of it to understand what researchers are finding out.
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For all those Mai Otome fans.
I've been laughing at some of the "creative" guesses here, my favorite is the fabric harmonizer!
It's about 36 inches long and it is surprisingly heavy, weighing 18 pounds. I'd like to have it to complete my souvenir collection of my daring exploits, so if you're the owner, please email me of fire a Hercules flare on a clear night no matter where you live (don't worry, the autosentries on the Sattelite of Secrecy will see it) and I'll make a generous offer to you.
Dr. H.
Dr. H.
http://pzphotosan148-a1.blogspot.com
I suppose Mark (#14) is the earliest to guess the function (before the answer was posted).