This week, among the thought-provoking insights about lexemes
versus word-forms (Haspelmath), exocentric versus endocentric compounds
(Haspelmath), and the delicate nuances between synonyms especially in the lexicographical
context (Atkins and Levin), the most interesting findings were ones that really
resonated with two classes I’ve taken: my THINK class, "The Language of Food," and Japanese.
The comparison between verb-framed languages and
satellite-framed languages in Slobin’s article reminded me of the discussions I
had in “The Language of Food” class as well as my cultural education in Japanese classes. In “The Language of Food” class, we deliberated
over whether people who speak different languages think and see the world
differently. For example, several researchers studied how English and Mandarin
Chinese speakers visualized time. Both English speakers and Mandarin Chinese
speakers moved their hands from left to right when asked to describe time in 3D
space, but only Mandarin Chinese speakers additionally represented time as
top-to-bottom. These results, the researchers hypothesized, come from how the
languages figuratively define time. For Mandarin Chinese speakers, events that
come earlier are shàng, or “up,” and
events that come later are xià, or “down”
(O. Fuhrman et al. 2011). With Slobin’s frog story, speakers of different kinds
of languages had narrative sentences that focused on different ways to describe
paths. Slobin mentions “rhetorical style” as unique to the languages, similar
to how the Mandarin Chinese “rhetorical style” of attaching metaphors to time
is distinct from that of English.
Another example of “rhetorical style” is that of Japanese.
Slobin noted, “…Cultural practices and preferences reinforce habitual patterns
of expression” (3). To add on to Slobin’s comment, culture plays a role in
shaping not only the patterns of expressions but also language in general. Japanese society, similar to other Asian societies
like Korea and Indonesia, is reflected in its language; depending on the status
of the listener relative to the speaker, the speaker will adjust her level of
formality, from casual (for friends) to neutral polite (for strangers) to extra
polite (for much higher-up figures, like bosses).
With this week’s readings as well as their connections to my
past classes in mind, some questions demand some attention. To what extent do
people who speak different languages have diverging perceptions of the world?
To what extent does being able to speak more than one language play a role in cognition?
To what extent does culture impact language and vice versa?
Hi Hillary,
ReplyDeleteI found your post very cool as it touched on the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, which is exactly the question of whether language ability dictates world perception. I remember researching this topic a while back and finding several studies that suggest that our perception is definitely somewhat shaped our spoken languages. I remember that speakers of a particular language that had distinctions for different shades of blue were able to more quickly discern the colors when tested against speakers of a language which only had one word for blue. However, I personally think such a different is a quite trivial. I wish I can remember any more meaningful differences but I am blanking. Anyways, as opposed to thinking of the language and how it affects perception, I was always more interested in how language affected personality. For me, I first became interested in language and its effect on potential personality traits when I was in high school and had a conversation with someone about different cultural stereotypes. Chinese people typically had cold personalities, Latin Americans are incredible hospitable, Canadians are friendly, etc. Nonetheless, we eventually attempted to figure out what the potential reasons that a culture would be associated with a particular trait--and the glaringly obvious thing to distinguish between the cultures is language (at least it was for me). Although I haven't found any evidence for this, I do hypothesize that particular words and phrases that exist in one language and not other can change how you view the world. You mentioned that you have experience in Japanese so I'll use a Japanese example. I learned once that there is a term in Japanese called "Kintsugi" that defines the mending of broken pottery with lacquer that is embellished. However, apparently there is a philosophy of "kintsugi" that embraces the destruction of something and the repairing as part of the process, and it can be extrapolated into a philosophy of action in which you accept your circumstances instead of lamenting them. It's quite a beautiful concept wrapped into one word, and it has far more nuance than just the word "repair" in English would. Now, if I were conducting a study, I'd try to see if Japanese people were more persevering as opposed to others in an English-speaking country on the basis of this word. However, I know that this is just one point of comparison between two languages so the experiment would probably not yield very much, but perhaps more comparisons can be found to examine any potential similarities.
Great post Hillary! As mentioned by Otto, you bring up the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and ask some very interesting questions on the matter. To add to Otto's comment, Russian is the language with the different distinctions for the color blue -- it has a word specifically used for lighter shades of blue and one for darker shades of blue. To provide another example of how cognition and perception may be altered by language, an Australian Aboriginal language called Yimithirr uses only cardinal directions to describe the position of objects (ex. the object is south of the tree, instead of the object is beside/to the right/etc. of the tree). As a result, there is debate as to whether this language has changed the spatial perception of those people who use it. The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis is not widely accepted though.
ReplyDeleteOn a different note, I don't know to what extent does being able to speak more than one language play a role in cognition, but I can talk about something I've noticed that may shed some insight on this question. I'm bilingual and English is not my first language. I've noticed that, when I'm focused on simple tasks, I tend to think in English if I'm in an English-speaking environment. However, when I'm solving a complicated problem -- say, a hard math problem under time pressure -- I automatically switch to Spanish in my head. This could mean that other languages we acquire can potentially expand our cognitive capacities, but our core mental processing happens in our native tongues.
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DeleteHillary, your comment about how the level of formality in Japanese language is shaped by the relationship between two individuals brings up an interesting point. This concept of word adjustment is foreign to many native English speakers but is common among a huge variety of other languages. It can definitely be thought-provoking to examine a foreign concept through our lens. However, I think it is even more intriguing to see a concept that we take as "normal" viewed from a different perspective. Specifically, let's consider the formality changes in language like Japanese. From my perspective, I see this added level of the language as one that emphasizes that status of interpersonal relationships in everyday life. Therefore I am curious how a native Japanese speaker views English, where this formality layer does not exist. Is it possibly viewed as an aspect of English that does the opposite: DEemphasizes relationship status? Or is it seen as something else completely? To me, these types of examples emphasize the importance of collaboration in a field like linguistics in order to study with unbiased perspectives.
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