JP Morgan Chase Library, New York City (2022)
Dr. Lera Boroditsky is a cognitive psychologist and linguist who has conducted research on the relationship between language and thought. In her 2017 YouTube video, she makes several key statements about language and how it shapes our perception of the world.
- 6:30 – “Well of course speakers of different languages have to think differently because, look, languages are requiring our speakers to pay attention to such different information just in order to be able to speak.”
Dr. Boroditsky argues that language influences how we perceive and categorize the world around us. For example, she notes that in English, we tend to describe events using a subject-verb-object sentence structure, which emphasizes the agent (the person or thing doing the action). In contrast, some languages use a subject-object-verb structure, which emphasizes the patient (the person or thing that the action is being done to). This can affect how speakers of these languages perceive events: When you see an event, you might focus more on the agent or the patient, depending on what your language is emphasizing. This is a good indication of why people make such poor eyewitnesses to events.
- 17:39 – “Across all of these cross-linguistic differences how do we know that language is creating the difference and how people think about time.”
The way we talk about time can shape the way we experience it. Dr. Boroditsky notes that different cultures have different ways of talking about time, which affects how people experience it. For example, she notes some cultures recognize time in reference to directions. However, in English, we might say ‘I’ll see you in a couple of hours,’ but in Mandarin, you might say ‘I’ll see you in a little while’ or ‘I’ll see you in a big while’ depending on how long you’re going to be.” This affects how people perceive the passing of time.
- 21:19 – “So the question is once you’ve learned a language like this, with grammatical gender, do you actually end up thinking of the sun and the moon as somehow more male-like or more female-like depending on what gender they are in your language?”
Grammar can actually influence how we think. Dr. Boroditsky notes that some languages have grammatical gender, which assigns masculine, feminine, or neuter genders to nouns. She argues that this can influence how speakers of these languages perceive inanimate objects: “If you have a feminine noun for ‘bridge’ and a masculine noun for ‘river’, then when you think of a bridge and a river, you might automatically think of the bridge as being more delicate and graceful, and the river as being more powerful and strong.” I have noticed this with young children when they are engaged in imaginary play, giving the bridge a more feminine voice, whereas the river would have a more masculine voice.
- 29:41 – “In English, we have this quite weird property in English in that we don’t strongly distinguish between things that are accidents and things that are intentional.”
Spanish is a language like this, it makes more of a distinction between accidents and intentional events. In Spanish we only talking about who did it when it’s intentional, but when it’s accidental less. The language we speak can affect how we remember and recall events. As an example, speakers of different languages may focus on different aspects of an event when recalling it, based on the linguistic structures available to them. The majority of my students are Spanish/Spanglish speakers and when trying to resolve a conflict between them I sometimes find the story confusing, simply because my grasp of the Spanish language is not strong. I will usually refer them to a counsellor who is a native Spanish speaker.
- 32:28 – “Speakers of different languages witness exactly the same event, but come away remembering different things about that event.
Different languages can lead to different perceptions of the world: Dr. Boroditsky suggests that the structure and vocabulary of different languages can lead speakers to see the world in distinct ways. She notes that different languages have different words and structures for categorizing things in the world. For example, she notes that the Navajo language has many words for the different ways beverages are consumed. Being bilingual or multilingual can allow people to see the same object or event in different ways: “When you’re bilingual, you’re able to think about the same concept in multiple ways. You can see the same thing from different angles and different perspectives.” This can lead to a more nuanced understanding of the world.
- 57:43 – “Language continues changing and evolving and that’s its nature it’s a living thing that we create and so whether it’s through technology or through being exposed to new experiences that’s just always going to happen. So, yes, people are definitely changing the language, part of that is driven by technology, but this is nothing new.”
As the world changes, so too does the way we talk about it. New ideas, inventions, and social changes require new words and ways of expressing ourselves. For example, the rise of social media has led to the creation of new words and phrases like “tweet,” “like,” and “hashtag,” which were not part of the English language just a few decades ago. As new words and expressions enter our vocabulary, they shape the way we think about the world and our place in it. This process is not just limited to the creation of new words, but also the evolution of grammar and syntax. Over time, the way we use language can change so much that it becomes almost unrecognizable from its earlier forms. Think hieroglyphics.
My final thought, the constantly evolving nature of language is an essential factor in its role in shaping our perceptions, ideas, and thoughts about the world.
References
SAR School for Advanced Research. (2017, June 7). Lera Boroditsky, how the languages we speak shape the way we think [Video]. YouTube.