[RightWhale]

It's a mixture of all these. The various brain lobes seem to specialize in different functions all the way from conscious motor control to subconscious feelings. But, back to language. The language one uses seems to affect how one thinks. Thought associations seem to be different between Englishmen and Chinese, for example. Engineers can often visualize better in 3-D than can non-engineers. Musicians and mathematicians are often the same people. Politicians can't imagine anything beyond the next election. Lawyers see a different world than the one we think we live in. It's not all language differences, but something must account for the fact that sports is in a different section of the paper than theater.

[Yeti]

Musicians and mathematicians are often the same people.

And yet popular culture often presents these as diametrically opposed personality types.

[Mike Darancette]

Thought associations seem to be different between Englishmen and Chinese, for example.

How about English speakers and the French? What is it about the French language that causes them to be so insufferable?