I haven’t finished reading Does Your Language Shape How You Think? yet in the New York Times, but it is proving to be a fascinating article. Benjamin Lee Whorf (no relation to Mr. Worf though it would be interesting to consider the Klingon language in a linguistic study), the man who originally floated the idea that people who speak a language that, say, has no words to indicate time, can’t grasp the concept of time, was long ago discredited (though not so long ago that we didn’t talk about his ideas in a graduate level linguistics course in the early 90s). Since his theory fell out of favor, apparently no one has bothered to study whether or not language does have any effect on the way we think. Until recently.
Recent studies are showing that people who don’t have words for certain concepts in their language can still understand the concept perfectly well (and it might be that they just express it in a different way). However, studies are finding our language does influence the way we see the world not because it doesn’t allow us to think about certain things but because of the things it obliges us to think about.
Take for instance languages like German or Spanish in which the nouns are gendered. People who speak those languages have to think about gender all the time and it appears to influence the ways they describe objects and the sort of characteristics they attribute to them.
Like I said, I haven’t finished reading the article yet, but so far it is quite interesting and I just had to share it with you since readers, I think, find language to be an especially fascinating topic.
Bookman and I just made our very first batch of nondairy ice cream thanks to our new play and freeze ice cream ball. It was fun and easy and preliminary taste tests say yum! We made vanilla for our first attempt. Bookman, my kitchen wizard, is already planning future variations. Have a good weekend everyone!
That does sound like an interesting article, and it’s fascinating to think about how gendered nouns make people think about gender more and change how they think about the nouns themselves. I’d love to know more!
I love thinking about language and its impact. I’m sure it does affect the way we think. I hadn’t thought of that gender issue before but it makes sense. It’s why I believe in what is derogatorily called “political correctness” … language does have impact so let’s say Actor not Actress, let’s say Woman not Girl (for adult females, that is!), let’s use terms for minorities that they are happy with and if the term becomes loaded let’s move on to a new term. And so on … off my hobby horse now.
we have that same ice cream maker ball! It’s so much fun, and delicious – although we’re always too impatient to toss it around for long, so our ice cream always ends up very soft.
I love thinking about the effects of language. Differences in the cultural development of language can lead to both subtle and gross misinterpretation of meaning.
I read another article about difference in visual perception among cultures. An American focusing on a painting will tend to see and focus on certain details (if I remember correctly), but a Japanese viewing the same painting would be more likely to concentrate on the background first. Wish I could remember where I read this article because I’m not stating it correctly. Now I’m wondering if this could be a language difference as well.
OK – I haven’t find the article I read about art, but here is a link to perception:cultural differences and it does mention linguistics. For example, concentrating on color has a relationship to a culture’s color vocabulary.
Here is another link to differences in visual perception and focus. Closer to the original article I read.
That sounds like a very interesting article- thank you for the link Stefanie! And enjoy your delicious ice-creams
Have a lovely Sunday!
It is an interesting thought! I have ofte wondered about this – also what about bilinguals, do they have a different way of thinking and grasping concepts?
Dorothy, it is interesting about how gendered language affects perception. The rest of the article talks about geographic languages and a little about color. Fascinating stuff!
whisperinggums, I’m with you. It was rather amusing recently to hear my husband struggle to find the right word when we were talking about my work day and how I had staffed a library information table at a 1L (new student) event. He wanted to say “manned” but knew that was wrong. Tried for “womaned” but that sounds funny, Attempted “personed” and then flailed around. “Staffed” I offered, I staffed the table. What a relief!
Jeane, my husband was skeptical about having to roll the thing around but it was fun and the results were worth the effort.
Jenclair, what interesting articles! Thanks for the links. The one in the Times does eventually mention color but doesn’t spend much time on it. Fascinating stuff!
Lua, the ice cream was delicious!
Willa, bilingualism probably has some effect, but fromt he article it sounds as though a person’s native language predominates.
LOL Stefanie. The two that trick people most are “manned” and “to master” something. This latter is not originally, I think, a gendered term but it has certainly come to be seen that way so I like to avoid if I can, but harder to find a good synonym for. “Staffed” works well for “manned” in most cases, I agree.
I have that article in my gym bag – scheduled to read it on my way home from work today (becasue I ran out of weekend reading time!). Thanks for the good review – at least on the part you read. Language & its nuances also fascinate me! Looking forward to reading the article. Have a GREAT DAY Stef
Yes, this is very interesting
Being Filipino, I use gendered nouns on an daily basis and I guess it does affect the way I compose thoughts in my head. But sometimes I also tend to think in English, because Filipinos practically grow up hearing English on TV all the time and reading it in almost every newspaper. We’re a country that doesn’t use out native language in almost everything “official”, from legal documents to road signs to names of government agencies. So yes, it can get a bit crazy where I come from 
whisperinggums, I’ve given up on “master” I figure it is just a neutral term now like “actor.” I, however, avoid as best I can of saying “hi guys” to a group of girlfriends because “guy” is definitely still a gendered term. Language is such a messy thing!
Helen, hope you enjoyed the aritcle! and you have a great day as well
Mark, how very interesting! Because of the prevalent bilingualism, I imagine the Phillipines would make a great linguistic study.
Interesting, does the article evaluate whether thinking about gender all the time makes for a positive, or negative difference in society?
I will definitely be reading this article. I read the Times on my Kindle and am currently on the August 11th issue. Needless to say I am WAY behind!
Jodie, no, the article doesn’t make and any positive or negative assessments, only talks about current research.
Kathleen, hope you enjoy the article when you get to it. And at least reading the Times on your Kindle you don’t have newspapers piling up!
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