{"id":46653,"date":"2020-02-14T11:16:03","date_gmt":"2020-02-14T10:16:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/?p=46653"},"modified":"2020-02-24T17:13:16","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T16:13:16","slug":"jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-painkillers-a-linguistics-based-approach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/02\/14\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-painkillers-a-linguistics-based-approach\/","title":{"rendered":"Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . Painkillers\u2014a linguistics based approach"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/12\/jeffrey_aronson.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft wp-image-32935\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2014\/12\/jeffrey_aronson.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"127\" height=\"160\" \/><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Jamie Coleman, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in Birmingham, has proposed replacing the term \u201cpainkiller\u201d with \u201cpain reliever\u201d, in the hope of reducing people\u2019s expectations of the therapeutic effects of opioid analgesics and heading off what might become a UK opioid crisis similar to that currently being experienced in the USA. Perhaps he had in mind the Sapir\u2013Whorf or Whorfian hypothesis, better called the hypothesis of linguistic relativity.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hypothesis has two main forms, strong and weak. Both propose that language and thought are closely related\u2014the strong, original, version that language <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">determines<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> thought and the weak version, sometimes called neo-Whorfianism, that it <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">influences<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> it. By influencing how we think about the world, so the hypothesis implies, language influences behaviour.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oxford English Dictionary<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">OED<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">) defines the hypothesis as follows: \u201cA hypothesis, first advanced by Sapir in 1929 and subsequently developed by Whorf, that the structure of a language partly determines a native speaker&#8217;s categorization of experience.\u201d As Edward Sapir originally wrote, in a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/ezproxy-prd.bodleian.ox.ac.uk:2077\/stable\/409588?Search=yes&amp;resultItemClick=true&amp;searchText=%22The+status+of+linguistics+as+a+science%22&amp;searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3D%2522The%2Bstatus%2Bof%2Blinguistics%2Bas%2Ba%2Bscience%2522%26amp%3Bacc%3Don%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone&amp;ab_segments=0%2Fbasic_SYC-4946%2Fcontrol&amp;refreqid=search%3Af7d63b310a880d5bff865a2f86b429e1&amp;seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">paper<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> titled \u201cThe status of linguistics as a science\u201d (<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Language<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> 1929; 5: 207-14): \u201cThe fact of the matter is that the \u2018real world\u2019 is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two languages are sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The world in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Both Sapir and his pupil Benjamin Lee Whorf (Figure 1) derived their ideas from studying Native American languages, Algonkian and Athabaskan, Nootka and Apache, but they did not publish the hypothesis in a joint paper. It was Harry Hoijer, another pupil of Sapir, who, in 1954, united their names posthumously in a chapter in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Language in Culture<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, \u201cThe central idea of the Sapir\u2013Whorf hypothesis is that language functions, not simply as a device for reporting experience, but also, and more significantly, as a way of defining experience for its speakers.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-46655 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"517\" height=\"400\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers.jpg 517w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers-300x232.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 517px) 100vw, 517px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The hypothesis implies that if there is no word to describe a concept, it will not be understood. However, there are many concepts that English speakers understand perfectly, but for which there is no English word. We often have to borrow a loan word or loan phrase from another language to describe such concepts: schadenfreude from German, d\u00e9j\u00e0 vu from French, bel canto from Italian. And we name some diseases from other languages, such as <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2018\/07\/27\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-more-medical-japanese\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Japanese<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. Furthermore, comparisons of English-speaking countries show that cultural expectations differ from country to country, even when the main spoken language is the same.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In the 1960s the Sapir\u2013Whorf hypothesis fell out of favour, after Noam Chomsky proposed that language is instinctive and innate. Just as our body structure is determined genetically, so are our cognitive processes. And, as Stephen Pinker points out in <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Language Instinct<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> (Figure 2), what little evidence there is for the hypothesis is weak and open to criticism.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-46656 alignnone\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"517\" height=\"553\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers2.jpg 517w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers2-280x300.jpg 280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 517px) 100vw, 517px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What about the analgesic words themselves? Table 1 lists the definitions, which do not convincingly show that there is any real difference between \u201cpainkiller\u201d and \u201cpain reliever\u201d. Nor have I seen any evidence that people\u2019s attitudes to the expected effects of analgesics are likely to be influenced by the words used to describe them. Most will, I believe, expect complete relief of acute pain from an analgesic, but no permanent cure if their pain is chronic.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><b>Table 1.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Some definitions (based on those in the <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">OED<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">)<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-46657 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers_table.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"668\" height=\"561\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers_table.jpg 668w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers_table-300x252.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/files\/2020\/02\/aronson_painkillers_table-640x537.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 668px) 100vw, 668px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The term \u201creliever\u201d has been <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/8704404\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">used<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> to describe \u03b2<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">2<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">-adrenoceptor agonists (e.g. salbutamol) in treating acute attacks of asthma. A reliever is expected to reverse the acute bronchospasm completely but not to prevent later attacks; that is what the preventer, an inhaled glucocorticoid, is expected to do. But pain is different\u2014we use the same type of medicine to treat both acute and chronic pain. In any case, the history of the opioid crisis in America does not suggest that terminology is at fault. There the problem has been compounded by false expectations about the risks of opioid dependence, the widespread availability of potent opioids, particularly modified-release oxycodone, and reckless prescribing (Figure 2).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Neither modern linguistics theory, <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">pace<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> a few neo-Whorfians, nor the dictionary definitions of the relevant words, nor the history of the American crisis suggests that a change in terminology will have any beneficial effect on the use of analgesics. It is, however, good to highlight the problem by talking about terminology, because it is likely to be educative.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><em><strong>Jeffrey Aronson<\/strong>\u00a0is a clinical pharmacologist, working in the Centre for Evidence Based Medicine in Oxford&#8217;s Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences. He is also president emeritus of the British Pharmacological Society.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong>Competing interests:<\/strong> None declared.<\/p>\n<table>\n<tbody>\n<tr style=\"border: 1px solid black\">\n<td style=\"border: 1px solid black;text-align: center\">\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><b>This week&#8217;s interesting integer: 261<\/b><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u2022 There are 261 distinct ways of dissecting a 16-gon into 7 quadrilaterals.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u2022 261 is the ninth nonagonal number, analogous to triangular and square numbers, and defined by the\u00a0 function Non(n) = n(7n \u2013 5)\/2<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u2022 261 is the sum of three non-zero squares in four different ways: 261 = 1<sup>2<\/sup> + 2<sup>2<\/sup> + 16<sup>2<\/sup> = 1<sup>2<\/sup> + 8<sup>2<\/sup> + 14<sup>2<\/sup> = 4<sup>2<\/sup>\u00a0 \u00a0+ 7<sup>2<\/sup> + 14<sup>2<\/sup> = 6<sup>2<\/sup> + 9<sup>2<\/sup> + 12<sup>2<\/sup><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\">\u2022 261 is a lucky number, so called because it survives the following <a href=\"https:\/\/www.jstor.org\/stable\/pdf\/3029719.pdf?refreqid=excelsior%3A7ddbad06d34c6b048d6e2bee6a1105e3&amp;seq=1\">sieving process<\/a>:<br \/>\n(a) List the integers, starting with 1:<br \/>\n1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 \u2026<br \/>\n(b) Remove every second number:<br \/>\n1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 \u2026<br \/>\n(c) The first lucky number to survive is 3, so now remove every third number:<br \/>\n1 3 7 9 13 15 19 21 25 27 31 \u2026<br \/>\n(d) The next lucky number to survive is 7, so now remove every seventh number:<br \/>\n1 3 7 9 13 15 21 25 27 31 \u2026<br \/>\n(e) Now remove every ninth number and so on; the list that emerges is as follows:<br \/>\n1, 3, 7, 9, 13, 15, 21, 25, 31, 33, 37, 43, 49, 51, 63, 67, 69, 73, 75, 79, 87, 93, 99, 105,<br \/>\n111, 115, 127, 129, 133, 135, 141, 151, 159, 163, 169, 171, 189, 193, 195, 201, 205,<br \/>\n211, 219, 223, 231, 235, 237, 241, 259, 261, &#8230;<\/p>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jamie Coleman, Professor of Clinical Pharmacology in Birmingham, has proposed replacing the term \u201cpainkiller\u201d with \u201cpain reliever\u201d, in the hope of reducing people\u2019s expectations of the therapeutic effects of opioid [&#8230;]<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"btn btn-secondary understrap-read-more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.bmj.com\/bmj\/2020\/02\/14\/jeffrey-aronson-when-i-use-a-word-painkillers-a-linguistics-based-approach\/\">More&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38359,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5762],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-jeff-aronsons-words"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Jeffrey Aronson: When I Use a Word . . . 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