Language may act as a straitjacket upon our ability to think.

So say master linguists Sapir-Whorf in their hypothesis tagged linguistic determinism. Our vocabulary, syntax and grammar, they assert, groove the mind into thinking along predetermined lines.

Sapir-Whorf contend that we cannot conceptualise (and have difficulty conceptualising) outside of what cannot be verbalised.

From a copywriter’s perspective I believe that we retrofit language to encapsulate the essence and gist of what we wish to express. It follows that canny and creative use of language eloquently extrudes and realises the best match for our abstract thoughts.

The creative writer therefore fulfils the role of expanding the frontiers of language, teasing out the vocabulary of thought and enriching the way in which our reality landscape is populated.