Language and Dreams

This post is more of an intellectual pursuit. This is something I've been kicking around in my head for years. I'd like to write a paper on this, but I have no idea where to even begin researching for it.

So what is this? For some background on how I even came up with this idea--which I'll get to in a minute--I learned French in high school. I got some of the best advice on learning a foreign language from a bilingual girl I knew in school. She told me to not translate while I'm speaking or listening in the language. This served me well as I navigated the finer points of French. It also helped a ton as I gained extra experience while watching "French in Action" on PBS. Even in French 1, when I knew only a handful of words, I watched this and tried to catch any words that I knew. Then rather than try to translate, I pictured the word in my mind visually.

I was also told that I would know I was fluent in a language when I could dream in that language. I don't remember who told me that, but it seemed to be common knowledge and the prevailing thought at the time.

Then I "met" Benjamin Lee Whorf. He is not to be confused with Lt. Wharf on Star Trek: The Next Generation.

Whorf is one of my academic heroes. He's a close second to Einstein. Whorf was a chemical engineer who had a hobby in linguistics. He studied American Indian languages and wrote many papers on linguistics based on his findings. He also worked with Edward Sapir on a theory called the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. Basically this states that language shapes our thoughts and, to some extent, our reality. Language is not merely the vehicle we use to express our thoughts. When I studied this in college, I found it to be very interesting. We know what is important in a culture based on what the language focuses on. For example, in America we only have one word for snow. The Eskimo have over 100 words for snow. Snow is not that important to us. We can use adjectives to give the snow qualities, but it is still the same word. Also, in French one of my favorite words is apprivoiser. If memory serves me right, it is translated into English as "to tame." But if you've read "The Little Prince" in French, it means so much more than that. The little prince must show up at the same time everyday to gain the fox's trust and friendship. Tame is an okay word, but it lacks the depth of the French meaning of apprivoiser.

Okay. So what does this have to do with anything? When I lived in Allentown six or seven years ago, I started learning Spanish. I am far from fluent in Spanish, but I did dream in Spanish once. Well, it was more like someone in my dream spoke some words in Spanish. In light of what I was learning about language and linguistics at the time, I wondered what role language actually plays in our dreams. What does this mean for the multi-lingual individual? How does the brain decide what language--or what reality--to dream in? When I had my dream, the person who said the words in Spanish was a Hispanic. I am not Spanish or Hispanic, so it doesn't make sense for me to say anything Spanish in my dreams. It seems that this is a shortcoming of the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis. I'm not sure if it holds true when it comes to dreams.

I'm hoping that someone has an opinion about this. I'd like to hear some other points of view, especially from someone who is actually fluent in more than one language.