How Language Shapes the Way We Think
There are many languages spoken in the world. Do you think people who speak different languages have different ways of thinking? Lera Boroditsky,/a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego,/discusses this issue in a talk.
I’ll be speaking to you/using language. This is one of these magical abilities/that we humans have. Because of this ability,/we’re able to transmit our ideas/across vast reaches of space and time.
There are about 7,000 languages/spoken around the world. And all the languages differ from one another in all kinds of ways/—in sound,/vocabulary,/and structure. We may ask the question:/Does the language we speak shape the way we think?
Some people would say yes,/and others would say no. The arguments have gone back and forth/for thousands of years. Until recently,/there hasn’t been any data/to help us decide either way. But now we have scientific data/to weigh in on this question.
Let me tell you/about some of my favorite examples. I’ll start with an example/from an Aboriginal community in Australia. They are the Kuuk Thaayorre people. In their language,/they don’t use words like “left” and “right.” Instead,/everything is in cardinal directions:/north, south, east, and west. You’d say something like,/“Move your cup to the north-northeast a little bit.” When you want to say “hello” in their language,/you’d say,/“Which way are you going?” And the answer should be,/“North-northeast in the far distance. How about you?”
We used to think/that humans were worse than other creatures at orientation,/but if your language trains you to do it,/you can do it.
There are also big differences/in how people think about time. Here I have pictures of my grandfather/at different ages. If I ask an English speaker/to organize the pictures in time order,/she might lay them out from left to right,/which indicates that time moves from left to right. But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre do it? They don’t use words like “left” and “right.” When facing south,/time moves from left to right. When facing north,/time moves from right to left. When facing east,/time comes towards the body. What’s the pattern? East to west, right? For them,/time doesn’t get locked on the body;/it gets locked on the landscape. It’s a dramatically different way of thinking/about time.
Here’s another human trick. Suppose I asked you/how many penguins you see. I know how you’d answer. You’d go,/“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” You’d count them. Having number words in your language/opens up the whole world of mathematics. This little trick gives you a stepping stone/into a whole cognitive realm.
Some languages don’t have number words. In fact,/people who speak these languages don’t count,/and they have trouble keeping track of exact quantities. For example,/if I asked you to match a certain number of penguins/to the same number of ducks,/you would be able to do that by counting. But folks who don’t have that linguistic trick/can’t do that. Languages also differ/in how they divide up the color spectrum. Some languages have lots of words for colors. Some have only a couple of words:/“light” and “dark.”
Languages also differ/in where they put boundaries between colors. For example,/in English,/blue can cover all shades of blue,/but in Russian,/there isn’t a single word. Instead,/Russian speakers have to differentiate/between light blue, goluboy,/and dark blue, siniy. So,/Russians have this lifetime of experience/of distinguishing these two colors in language.
The difference/in how languages categorize the color spectrum/has important consequences. When we test people’s ability/to perceptually discriminate among these colors,/we find that Russian speakers are faster/across this linguistic boundary. For example,/when you have colors shifting slowly/from light to dark blue,/Russian speakers will have a surprised reaction in their brains,/whereas English speakers won’t.
Languages also differ in how they describe events. Take an event like an accident. In English,/it’s fine to say,/“She broke the vase.” In Spanish,/you wouldn’t say that someone did it;/rather, you’d say,/“The vase broke,”/or “The vase broke itself.”
Again,/this has consequences. English speakers will remember who did it,/because English requires you to specify the actor. In contrast,/Spanish speakers/might be less likely to remember who did it,/because there’s no such requirement.
So far,/I’ve given you a few examples/of how language can shape the way we think,/and how it does so in a variety of ways.
Now,/the beauty of linguistic diversity/is that it reveals to us/just how ingenious and flexible the human mind is. We have invented not one cognitive universe,/but 7,000/—there are 7,000 languages in the world. The tragic thing/is that we’re losing so much of this linguistic diversity. By some estimates,/half of the world’s languages/will be gone in the next hundred years.
I want to leave you with a final thought. I’ve told you/about how speakers of different languages think differently,/and how the language that you speak/shapes the way you think. This gives you the opportunity to ask,/“Why do I think the way I do?” “How could I think differently?” “What thoughts do I wish to create?”
Thank you very much.
There are many languages spoken in the world. Do you think people who speak different languages have different ways of thinking? Lera Boroditsky,/a professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego,/discusses this issue in a talk.
I’ll be speaking to you/using language. This is one of these magical abilities/that we humans have. Because of this ability,/we’re able to transmit our ideas/across vast reaches of space and time.
There are about 7,000 languages/spoken around the world. And all the languages differ from one another in all kinds of ways/—in sound,/vocabulary,/and structure. We may ask the question:/Does the language we speak shape the way we think?
Some people would say yes,/and others would say no. The arguments have gone back and forth/for thousands of years. Until recently,/there hasn’t been any data/to help us decide either way. But now we have scientific data/to weigh in on this question.
Let me tell you/about some of my favorite examples. I’ll start with an example/from an Aboriginal community in Australia. They are the Kuuk Thaayorre people. In their language,/they don’t use words like “left” and “right.” Instead,/everything is in cardinal directions:/north, south, east, and west. You’d say something like,/“Move your cup to the north-northeast a little bit.” When you want to say “hello” in their language,/you’d say,/“Which way are you going?” And the answer should be,/“North-northeast in the far distance. How about you?”
We used to think/that humans were worse than other creatures at orientation,/but if your language trains you to do it,/you can do it.
There are also big differences/in how people think about time. Here I have pictures of my grandfather/at different ages. If I ask an English speaker/to organize the pictures in time order,/she might lay them out from left to right,/which indicates that time moves from left to right. But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre do it? They don’t use words like “left” and “right.” When facing south,/time moves from left to right. When facing north,/time moves from right to left. When facing east,/time comes towards the body. What’s the pattern? East to west, right? For them,/time doesn’t get locked on the body;/it gets locked on the landscape. It’s a dramatically different way of thinking/about time.
Here’s another human trick. Suppose I asked you/how many penguins you see. I know how you’d answer. You’d go,/“One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.” You’d count them. Having number words in your language/opens up the whole world of mathematics. This little trick gives you a stepping stone/into a whole cognitive realm.
Some languages don’t have number words. In fact,/people who speak these languages don’t count,/and they have trouble keeping track of exact quantities. For example,/if I asked you to match a certain number of penguins/to the same number of ducks,/you would be able to do that by counting. But folks who don’t have that linguistic trick/can’t do that. Languages also differ/in how they divide up the color spectrum. Some languages have lots of words for colors. Some have only a couple of words:/“light” and “dark.”
Languages also differ/in where they put boundaries between colors. For example,/in English,/blue can cover all shades of blue,/but in Russian,/there isn’t a single word. Instead,/Russian speakers have to differentiate/between light blue, goluboy,/and dark blue, siniy. So,/Russians have this lifetime of experience/of distinguishing these two colors in language.
The difference/in how languages categorize the color spectrum/has important consequences. When we test people’s ability/to perceptually discriminate among these colors,/we find that Russian speakers are faster/across this linguistic boundary. For example,/when you have colors shifting slowly/from light to dark blue,/Russian speakers will have a surprised reaction in their brains,/whereas English speakers won’t.
Languages also differ in how they describe events. Take an event like an accident. In English,/it’s fine to say,/“She broke the vase.” In Spanish,/you wouldn’t say that someone did it;/rather, you’d say,/“The vase broke,”/or “The vase broke itself.”
Again,/this has consequences. English speakers will remember who did it,/because English requires you to specify the actor. In contrast,/Spanish speakers/might be less likely to remember who did it,/because there’s no such requirement.
So far,/I’ve given you a few examples/of how language can shape the way we think,/and how it does so in a variety of ways.
Now,/the beauty of linguistic diversity/is that it reveals to us/just how ingenious and flexible the human mind is. We have invented not one cognitive universe,/but 7,000/—there are 7,000 languages in the world. The tragic thing/is that we’re losing so much of this linguistic diversity. By some estimates,/half of the world’s languages/will be gone in the next hundred years.
I want to leave you with a final thought. I’ve told you/about how speakers of different languages think differently,/and how the language that you speak/shapes the way you think. This gives you the opportunity to ask,/“Why do I think the way I do?” “How could I think differently?” “What thoughts do I wish to create?”
Thank you very much.