This hypothesis continues to be controversial and we have only begun to examine some of the implications of the hypothesis. The figure to the right is an attempt to give you a visual image of the space of alternatives. The main break in this space is between informal and formal languages. Natural language is the best example of an all-purpose informal language that can be used to describe aspects of our world. But other examples can be given.
Musical notation is also an informal language as is the set of conventions used in a road map.
The significance of this distinction between formal and informal languages lies in the degree to which the choice of language commits us to certain assumptions about the things that we are using the language to describe. That is, there is no constraint on what words and combination of words that I might choose to describe what I find important about thinking. Contrast this with what can be said when the language adopted is a specific formal mathematical languages. None of these ideas could be expressed. All attempts at describing aspects of our world begin with informal description.