just names for things language & thought kyle e. chambers 2007.11.20 orwell "Don t you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thought crime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it... Every year fewer and fewer words, and the range of consciousness always a little smaller. nietzsche empty gas barrels "Where there exists a language affinity it is quite impossible, thanks to the common philosophy of grammar--i mean thanks to unconscious domination and directing by similar grammatical functions--to avoid everything being prepared in advance for a similar evolution and succession of philosophical systems: just as the road seems to be barred to certain other possibilities of world interpretation." 1
sapir The fact of the matter is that the real world is to a large extent unconsciously built up on the language habits of the group. No two languages are ever sufficiently similar to be considered as representing the same social reality. The worlds in which different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels attached." whorf the world is presented in a kaleidoscopic flux of impressions which has to be organized by our minds--and this means largely by the linguistic systems in our minds... We are thus introduced to a new principle of relativity, which holds that all observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless their linguistic backgrounds are similar whorf "We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significances as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way - an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codifed in the patterns of our language." the elephant ate the peanuts (boroditsky) English: now or previously? Russian: all or some of the peanuts? Turkish: did I see it or did someone tell me? colors (brown, lenneberg, berlin, kay, rosch ) losing ground Dani English inconclusive first results improbability of extreme version emphasis on universal properties 2
chomsky & pinker The computational system of language that determines the forms and relations of linguistic expressions may indeed be invariant; in this sense, there is only one human language, as a rational Martian observing humans would have assumed. ~Chomsky politically correct old --> senior citizen short --> vertically challenged policeman --> police officer a visiting Martian scientist would surely conclude that aside from their mutually unintelligible vocabularies, Earthlings speak a single language. ~Pinker neo-whorfian (slobin) emphasis on thinking for speaking space time substances objects English in on space (mcdonough, choi, & mandler, 2003) Korean tight-fitting (kkita) loose-fitting (nehta) in, on, tight oddity task One of these things is not like the others, One of these things just doesn't belong, Can you tell which thing is not like the others By the time I finish my song? 3
results English adults tight/loose not used Korean adults tight/loose used since korean requires specifying whether something is tight- or loose-fitting, adults are more likely to attend to that dimension spatial reference (levinson and colleagues) English (& Dutch) relative (left/right, front/back) absolute (east/west, north/south) Tzeltal absolute (uphill/downhill) view table turn 180 degrees north & left south & left south & left south & right 4
turn 180 degrees north & left Dutch (relative) Since Tzeltzal use absolute reference for spatial description, it affects their performance on orientation tasks. Tzeltal (absolute) south & left south & right context matters (li and gleitman, 2002) outdoors Tzeltal English Blinds up Blinds down When landmarks are salient, English adults also use absolute reference. But context isn t everything time (boroditsky, 2001) English front-back, horizontal Mandarin Chinese up-down, vertical 5
priming spatial metaphors results Prime Target March comes earlier than April. English speakers horizontal faster than vertical Mandarin speakers horizontal SLOWER than vertical shape & substance (lucy and gaskins, 2001) Once again, the way you talk about a particular dimension (e.g., time) influences the way you think about that dimension Even when those terms are not used. English pen, pencil dough, water Yucatec Mayan two short pieces of wood the task results English speakers matched based on shape Yucatec Mayan matched based on substance same shape same substance which one is like the one you just saw? 6
After habitually specifying the substance of objects, Yucatec Mayans are more likely to attend to substance. objects (boroditsky et al., 2003) Grammatical gender inanimate objects have gender Key feminine in Spanish masculine in German key German (Masculine) hard, heavy, jagged, metal, serrated, and useful Spanish (Feminine) golden, intricate, little, lovely, shiny, and tiny bridge German (Feminine) beautiful, elegant, fragile, peaceful, pretty, and slender Spanish (Masculine) big, dangerous, long, strong, sturdy, and towering The gender your language assigns to inanimate objects affects your perception of these objects. developmental studies If language shapes thought, we should see developmental changes associated with language exposure. 7
tight-in, loose-in space (hespos and spelke, 2004) Korean adults notice the difference English adults don t 5-month-old English infants do time (boroditsky, 2001) march comes earlier than april vertical faster than horizontal correlation between age of acquisition and vertical bias conceptual changes seem to be occurring at the onset of native language specialization. conclusions thoughts are not words not one world with different labels thinking for speaking shapes our thinking even when we aren t speaking 8