Examples of noun languages:
English
it rains
I adore you
they adore clouds
French
il pleut
je t' adore
ils/elles adorent des nuages
And of null-noun languages:
Spanish
[el] llove
[yo] te adoro
[ellos/ellas] adoran nubes
Portuguese
[ele] chove
[eu] adoro-te
[eles/elas] adoram nuvens
That is, in null-noun languages the verbs contain information about the grammatical number and person of the noun and therefore there is no need to use it when producing a sentence, even though that same noun can be used anytime: for emphatic purposes, as one example. This also means, generally speaking, that learning the verbs of noun languages is easier (which is the case of English) for we can use the same verb form for different grammatical persons and numbers: “I can, he can, we all can”. Contemporary French however is more complex, as the conjugation of verbs preserved plenty of traces typical of a null-noun language…
Sometimes and also recently, I’m using English (or Antonish, if you prefer, or as I prefer) for a long period of time. And that means that after a while I get tired of using (pro)nouns such as "I this", "I that", "I" ,"I"… and "you" too. From time to time. In comparison with my null-noun native language, it feels as if I'm always talking about myself, even if I’m really doing so. It feels as if I'm being more selfish.
I’m wondering if this constant use of the personal pronoun is not helping in some way to shape up a more distant frame of mind from the concept of “I” in relation to those of “you” or “they” or even “this” or “that.” If it does help to create such a frame of mind, then the simple use of the English language could lead the native speaker to have a conceptual feeling of being more distant and isolated from the other, from the world, than a null-noun language speaker. The Ego could be thus more self-aware, introspective, self-centered and alone.
It could be one more case of language sculpturing a different concept of the self.
image: http://www.bloodforoil.org
