This link has been bookmarked by 75 people . It was first bookmarked on 27 Aug 2010, by msachleben Sachleben.
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22 Aug 11
E ArmstrongEng Lang students: just finished reading Guy Deuyscher's book on language/ thought: summary of issues by him here http://t.co/yVevHdV NYT
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28 May 11
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17 Feb 11
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In particular, Whorf announced, Native American languages impose on their speakers a picture of reality that is totally different from ours, so their speakers would simply not be able to understand some of our most basic concepts, like the flow of time or the distinction between objects (like “stone”) and actions (like “fall”).
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Consider this example. Suppose I say to you in English that “I spent yesterday evening with a neighbor.” You may well wonder whether my companion was male or female, but I have the right to tell you politely that it’s none of your business. But if we were speaking French or German, I wouldn’t have the privilege to equivocate in this way, because I would be obliged by the grammar of language to choose between voisin or voisine; Nachbar or Nachbarin. These languages compel me to inform you about the sex of my companion whether or not I feel it is remotely your concern.
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On the other hand, English does oblige you to specify certain types of information that can be left to the context in other languages. If I want to tell you in English about a dinner with my neighbor, I may not have to mention the neighbor’s sex, but I do have to tell you something about the timing of the event: I have to decide whether we dined, have been dining, are dining, will be dining and so on. Chinese, on the other hand, does not oblige its speakers to specify the exact time of the action in this way, because the same verb form can be used for past, present or future actions.
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14 Feb 11
Kendra HaydenThis article discusses both sides of the argument for language shaping our thought, and includes some good examples that make the argument relevant and understandable.
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The general structure of his arguments was to claim that if a language has no word for a certain concept, then its speakers would not be able to understand this concept.
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Or think about it this way: If the inventory of ready-made words in your language determined which concepts you were able to understand, how would you ever learn anything new?
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“Languages differ essentially in what they must convey and not in what they may convey.”
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if different languages influence our minds in different ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about.
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12 Feb 11
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we do after all acquire certain habits of thought that shape our experience in significant and often surprising ways.
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new research has revealed that when we learn our mother tongue,
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Whorf, we now know, made many mistakes. The most serious one was to assume that our mother tongue constrains our minds and prevents us from being able to think certain thoughts.
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if different languages influence our minds in different ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about.
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When your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information, it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all the time. And since such habits of speech are cultivated from the earliest age, it is only natural that they can settle into habits of mind that go beyond language itself, affecting your experiences, perceptions, associations, feelings, memories and orientation in the world.
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29 Jan 11
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02 Dec 10
Chris GrieserWhen your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information, it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all th
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20 Oct 10
latriviataSINCE THERE IS NO EVIDENCE that any language forbids its speakers to think anything, we must look in an entirely different direction to discover how our mother tongue really does shape our experience of the world. Some 50 years ago, the renowned linguist
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18 Oct 10
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when we learn our mother tongue, we do after all acquire certain habits of thought that shape our experience
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if different languages influence our minds in different ways, this is not because of what our language allows us to think but rather because of what it habitually obliges us to think about.
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These languages compel me to inform you about the sex of my companion whether or not I feel it is remotely your concern
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English does oblige you to specify certain types of information that can be left to the context in other languages.
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but I do have to tell you something about the timing of the event: I have to decide whether we dined, have been dining, are dining, will be dining and so on
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When your language routinely obliges you to specify certain types of information, it forces you to be attentive to certain details in the world and to certain aspects of experience that speakers of other languages may not be required to think about all the tim
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Languages that treat an inanimate object as a he or a she force their speakers to talk about such an object as if it were a man or a woman
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24 Sep 10
Carla CasilliSeventy years ago, in 1940, a popular science magazine published a short article that set in motion one of the trendiest intellectual fads of the 20th century. At first glance, there seemed little about the article to augur its subsequent celebrity. Neith
brain culture gender language linguistics news psychology science SapirWhorf controversy nyt cognition debate Delicious
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11 Sep 10
klangnese LangneseFascinating insights how language shapes our thoughts and lifes.
culture gender language Languages linguistics nytimes psychology science brain
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07 Sep 10
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03 Sep 10
Rey Aquino"Native American languages impose on their speakers a picture of reality that is totally different from ours, so their speakers would simply not be able to understand some of our most basic concepts, like the flow of time or the distinction between objects (like “stone”) and actions (like “fall”)."
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30 Aug 10
Brooke KreitingerArticle by Guy Deutscher on how different languages shape how it's speakers perceive the world. Particular focus on languages that use gender and different manners of referring to spatial aspects, such as describing locations of things or how a language requires one to locate him/herself in relation to spatial coordinates when narrating, eg egocentric coordinates vs. use of cardinal directions. Article adapted from Deutscher's new book His new book, “Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages”.
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29 Aug 10
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