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Yes, and I have to add: language undoubtedly reflects the unique ways that
various cultures look at the world, and that is one of the many reasons why
language preservation is so important. But, the popular view that people
are somehow RESTRICTED from thinking in certain ways, due to the languages
that they speak, has not held up to a half century of studies on the subject.
Indeed, the whole idea that "language = thinking" has been greatly exaggerated.
I would guess this to be especially true of words relating to motion--for
example, I am very poor at giving directions in any language that I speak,
but that does not mean that I am poor at having a mental understanding of
how to get to places. Also, I highly doubt that people without language
are somehow restricted in terms of spatial understanding simply because they
cannot describe motions verbally. <br>
<br>
As for this study, I speak Japanese at home, and it is true that the Japanese
intransitive verb "yureru" could be translated either as "swing" (with a
trajectory) or as "rock" (without a trajectory). But, I highly doubt that
this means that Japanese people cannot imagine a rocking motion with an arc
(something that could, at any rate, be easily described in Japanese, or any
other language on earth--somehow people think that meaning is conveyed solely
by individual words, as if paraphasing was impossible!). I fact, after reading
this article, I tried the experiment out on my Japanese wife, and she had
no trouble duplicating the motion of swinging after watching me act it out.
I have a suspicion that the researcher went into this study expecting a
certain result, and that he allowed this to influence what actually happened.
<br>
<br>
At any rate, I cannot help but notice that deficit grammars, when posited,
usually end up putting the more powerful languages on top. You have got
to wonder about that!<br>
<br>
MJ Hardman wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite" cite="midBB8B43C5.5C7F%25hardman@ufl.edu">
<pre wrap="">And, of course, the study is a 'deficit' study -- English comes out on top!
Not difference, but hierarchy!
Deficit grammars are prohibited in my classroom.
Dr. MJ Hardman
website: <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/">http://grove.ufl.edu/~hardman/</a>
On 09/12/2003 12:18 PM, "Phil CashCash" <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:cashcash@EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU"><cashcash@EMAIL.ARIZONA.EDU></a> wrote:
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<pre wrap="">Language influences the way you think
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_818420.html">http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_818420.html</a>
Speakers of different languages not only describe the world differently
but think about it differently too, according to a new study.
Researchers used a cartoon featuring black and white cat Sylvester to
study how language was reflected in the gestures people made.
Dr Sotaro Kita of the University of Bristol's Department of Experimental
Psychology, showed the cartoon to a group of native English, Japanese
and Turkish speakers and then watched their gestures as they described
the action they had seen.
He found speakers of the three different languages used different
gestures to depict the same event, which appeared to reflect the way
the structure of their languages expressed that event.
For example, when describing a scene where Sylvester swings on a rope,
the English speakers used gestures showing an arc trajectory and the
Japanese and Turkish speakers tended to use straight gestures showing
the motion but not the arc.
Dr Kita suggests this is because Japanese and Turkish have no verb that
corresponds to the English intransitive verb 'to swing'.
While English speakers use the arc gesture as their language can readily
express the change of location and the arc-shaped trajectory, Japanese
and Turkish speakers cannot as easily express the concept of movement
with an arc trajectory so they use the straight gesture.
Dr Kita said: "My research suggests that speakers of different languages
generate different spatial images of the same event in a way that
matches the expressive possibilities of their particular language.
"In other words, language influences spatial thinking at the moment of
speaking."
Story filed: 14:06 Friday 12th September 2003
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