- [7:37] – Dr. Boroditsky mentions that although we may not mention all the specifics about a particular scenario in when describing it in language, there are encoded assumptions we make about what we are hearing. She uses the example of stating that it rained today; in the English language we would have the understanding that the speaker is referencing the outdoors, and likely wouldn’t think the speaker believed that it rained inside the lecture theatre. This reminds me of a video by Josh Darnit (2017) wherein he asks his children to write out directions on how to construct a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. He follows the directions to a tee, and it’s revealed through the video that there are many implied assumptions we make when deciphering language (in this case, in written form). For instance, in one of the steps, he was instructed to wipe the peanut butter and jelly “all over” the slice of bread. Taking this information literally, he begins to spread the peanut butter and jelly on both faces of the bread as well as on the crust sides of the bread, while his child looks on with mixed feelings. This drives home the point that language and text is extremely nuanced, as well as how we interpret it. It’s key to consider our audience and the intention of the communication. In my work, I often need to write step-by-step guides for instructors and staff. I find that there’s a particular balance that I need to strike when breaking down the steps in language and reference images. I need to consider the needs of a range of user, running the gamut between absolute beginners and experienced technology innovators, visual learners and those that thrive following succinct text instructions. Tack onto this that some of the readers may not have English as their first language, and it becomes a task that has the potential to be downright confusing. Dr. Boroditsky highlights the need to consider our audience, and apply knowledge about multiliteracies in order to most effectively communicate our message. Feel free to check out Josh Darnit’s video below. It’s quite entertaining!
- [16:01] Dr. Boroditsky describes how, based on cultural understandings about time and space, people of different language and culture spatially lay out sequences by noting the way their body is positioned in relation to east and west. In languages that exist within a culture that rely more heavily on wayfinding and elements of nature, this makes perfect sense. In modern English-speaking culture, we seem to have far less need to orient ourselves to nature’s signposts. Dr. Boroditsky makes the point that those who orient time from left to right could be interpreted as making time chase them around! I thought this was clever, and interesting to consider why and how we spatially construct time the way we do.
- [19:16] Dr. Boroditsky explains how different cultures categorize colours, stating that in some languages there are specific words particular shades whereas in other languages those distinctions would be harder to communicate. I found this really interesting. I wonder if the way people communicate colour could be impacted by their experience in mixing colour, as in fine art. If you were to ask an experienced artist the combinations of paint they used to achieve a particular colour, they’d likely be able to recount the names of the hues they used, the ratio of each, and how much tint or shade they mixed in to achieve the effect. Because artists have experiential knowledge of mixing the hues, they have more capacity to describe it. To add another element to this, using colour to describe emotion could be different from person to person, across languages and culture. For a person in western culture, a particular hue of red could symbolize danger or anger, but for a person of Chinese descent, the same hue could symbolize luck and prosperity. This also made me think about hex codes in digital art and design, which could be considered a technologically universal language to refer to seemingly infinite hues of colour.
- [23:56] The commentary that Dr. Boroditsky makes about grammatically gender nouns impacting how people interpret objects, events, and art piqued my interest. As gender fluidity becomes more mainstream, will the impact of gendered language become less pronounced? If a language or culture adheres to strict rules about grammatical gender, does this impact how speakers of that language comprehend the concept of non-binary gender? In recent years, we’ve seen gender non-binary/fluid folks create pronouns to refer to themselves in English, such as ze/zir, xe/xem. In other languages such as Romanian, Polish, and Ukrainian, there already happen to be more than two grammatical genders. Perhaps we will see (or maybe we have already seen) more languages adopting additional pronouns into their language.
- [41:57] The marketing use of language and word choice to shape how we think about products is ubiquitous, and Dr. Boroditsky’s illustration about the interpretive contrast between prunes and dried plums is an excellent example. A tangential thought related to this is the commonly accepted practice of using of brand names to refer to products. Using the word Kleenex instead of tissues or the word Band-aid instead of adhesive bandage are generally understood, at least in English. I would imagine this phenomenon is also observed in other languages and cultures. As words and their associations evolve over time, so do our interpretations of what they mean in different contexts.
- [45:53] Dr. Boroditsky discusses America attempting to appoint “freedom” as a substitute for “French” in well-known terms such as French fries and French toast due to political motives. Another example of using language to politically impact how audiences interpret information is around discussions of global warming. Often politically left-leaning groups refer to the global warming as a climate crisis or climate emergency, which can inspire people to feel more urgency to take action. Politically right-leaning groups seem to use terms like climate change, which creates less of an impetus to act. Word choice in political agendas directly impact the divisiveness we feel as humans living in this world, making it challenging to find any kind of common truth that unites us.
References:
Darnit, J. (2017, April 20). Exact instructions challenge PB&J classroom friendly | josh darnit. [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN2RM-CHkuI
SAR School for Advanced Research. (2017, June 7). Lera Boroditsky, how the languages we speak shape the way we think [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGuuHwbuQOg
Hi Lachelle,
The Josh Darnit video is such a good example of how open to interpretation language really is. In education I’ve used it in the context of demonstrating to students how they should write their science experiment procedures that they’ve designed, but now I’m wondering if I can use it for my introductory epistemology class as well to highlight the nuances of language. Thanks for sharing your connects between Broditsky and this video!
Regarding your point about colours, I’m reminded of this map I showed in my introductory epistemology class that shows the population changes in China over a decade. https://preview.redd.it/yrw4krfw1og81.jpg?width=1024&auto=webp&s=95428d994fecf079c874e60a9d05f5e416b17b33
Contrary to what most western/westernized people would think by glancing at the map without looking at the legend, green denotes negative population growth while red denotes positive growth. Despite being born in Taiwan to Han-Taiwanese parents, decades of living in Canada caused me to have this reaction when I first saw this map as well. To provide another example, Yahoo Stocks Taiwan (https://tw.stock.yahoo.com/) uses red for increases and green for decreases, while something like CNN Markets (https://www.cnn.com/markets) uses opposite colours.
While I associate green with lush forests and vibrant plant life, the term “wearing a green hat” in Chinese is an euphemism for their significant other cheating on them; I wonder if this attributes to a more negative association to the colour green in Chinese speaking cultures.
Finally, to add to your discussion about pronouns, I’ll add on with the example of Japanese, which has numerous different first person pronouns depending on gender identity and social context. For example, ore is typically for males among friends, while watashi is gender neutral for formal settings (though females prefer it over other pronouns). Age is also a factor in selecting first person pronouns, with young males preferring boku, which eventually is replaced by watashi or jibun.
Hi Matt,
The video is such a good one, hey? It’s so impactful, and can be used across many disciplines to underscore the importance of writing for clarity. But even so, things can still get ‘lost in translation’, especially when each person is coming to a particular scenario with their own experiences, expertise, motives, etc.
Thanks for sharing your anecdotes about colour associations from different cultures. These are great examples of how colour can really impact and challenge our interpretation of text and graphical communications. Thinking a bit more deeply about this, I can see why red might be associated with growth. For instance, in heat maps, we generally associate red with more density. In terms of the value of money, red could mean more activity. It’s so interesting how culturally, we become accustomed to (and rarely question) where these associations come from. I wonder about those folks who have colour-blindness or other vision impairment, and how ‘text’ communications like this would be understood of through their lens. Likely in a wholly different way!
-Lachelle
Hi Lachelle,
It’s not surprising that Dr. Boroditsky’s quote about language and colour stood out to you, especially given the watercolour paints you always carry around. Your comments on how different cultures categorize colours and how personal experiences with colour mixing can affect communication really intrigued me.
Your insight into how artists, with their hands-on experience in mixing colours, can more precisely describe hues is a fascinating perspective. This experiential knowledge definitely gives them a unique ability to communicate the subtleties of colour that others might miss. I hadn’t thought about how this ability might extend to using colour to describe emotions, but it makes perfect sense. The cultural context you provided, where the same colour can have vastly different meanings, is another layer that enriches our understanding of language and perception.
How do you think your experience with watercolour painting has influenced your own perception and communication of colours and emotions?
Thanks for your post Carol! I’m glad my commentary on colour and experiential knowledge piqued your interest.
I think the key component here is the intent behind expression, and the interpretation on the receivers end. Whether they use language, colours, or imagery, the individual making the expression is using their own understanding, knowledge and experience to craft their message in their chosen medium. The person witnessing or receiving the expression interprets it and decodes it with their own body of knowledge and makes their own meaning from it. This becomes an interesting interplay, and as you’ve alluded to, can bring forth many layers to communication that we often take for granted.
In my own work with art, I attempt to express a concept or emotion that I could probably use words for, but there’s a cathartic translation between taking those sentiments and putting them into brushstrokes of colour. When I look at another person’s art, I think about the colours they’ve used, the way they’ve laid them down, and how each colour and brushstroke choice interacts with the rest of the piece. Interpreting the emotion and message behind a work of art seems more natural because, in working with the mediums, I’ve learned how difficult it can be to achieve certain effects. So, when viewing certain artworks, it’s almost like you can feel the struggle and the achievement the artist went through to get to the final product, which adds to those layers of interpretation you mentioned.
I think this same understanding could be applied to something like witnessing a really great lesson delivered by a colleague: in knowing the amounts of work it takes to come up with an excellent anticipatory set/hook, explore the background of the concept one is teaching, teach a skill and give students an opportunity to practice that skill, and then elicit feedback from the students, you can appreciate a well delivered lesson all that much more!
Thanks again for your comments and questions!