What we have learned is that the answer to this question is complicated. To some extent, it's a chicken-and-egg question: Are you unable to think about things you don't have words for, or do you lack words for them because you don't think about them? Part of the problem is that there is more involved than just language and thought; there is also culture. Your culture-the traditions, lifestyle, habits, and so on that you pick up from the people you live and interact with-shapes the way you think, and also shapes the way you talk.

As language evolves and new terms enter the mainstream, teenagers are often blamed for debasing linguistic standards. In some cases, their preferred forms of communication-like text messaging-are attacked. But, teens don't actually influence language as much as is often claimed. That's one of the key findings in the latest linguistic research by Mary Kohn, an assistant professor of English at Kansas State University. How much a person's vernacular changes over time may have as much to do with personality and social standing as it has to do with age. The extent to which teenagers are credited with (or blamed for) driving lasting change to language is, she says, "grossly overstated." The same factors that prompt teens to experiment with new language are applicable to people at many stages of life.

If you are on the far side of 70, as I am, you may not even know what emoticons and Emojis are, but trust me, your grandchildren do. Emoticons - those little smiley face icons used to show various emotions, and their descendants, Emojis - icons illustrating almost anything, from Santa Claus to a screaming cat to a pile of excrement - have become so popular with young people who communicate by texting and emailing, that some Emoji experts converse only through pictographs. You don't need to know the other person's foreign language - or even how to read!

Emoji are already butting their heads with traditional words, but could they take over completely? The year 2015 could be called the year of the emoji. They have landed a teenage boy in a police cell and prompted Vladimir Putin's wrath in Russia, and the loveable smiley faces are even set to come to life in their own Hollywood film.