Russians seem to avoid using N, S, E, W

[Dianna Murphy]

  Dear SEELANGs,

Somewhat related to this topic, there is interesting new research coming 
out of cognitive psychology that revisits -- and tries to empirically 
test -- the question of whether speakers of languages *think* and 
perceive the world differently.  Lera Boroditsky, for example, a 
cognitive psychologist at Stanford who looks at differences in domains 
of thought such as space, time, motion, color, etc., discusses the 
example of Kuuk Thaayorrean, an aboriginal language in Australia, in 
which speakers express all direction in absolute reference frames 
("there's an ant on my southwest leg," is one of her examples from this 
language), compared with languages such as English and Russian, in which 
speakers tend to use more relative frames, referring to themselves 
("there's an ant on my left leg," which references the speaker) or other 
objects (landmarks, etc.).

In looking at perceptions of color, Boroditskaya compares speakers of 
Russian and English directly, testing whether speakers of these 
languages perceive BLUE differently.  Using tests of reaction time to 
color differences, she concludes that speakers of Russian do perceive 
blue (sinij/goluboj) differently than do speakers of English.

The questions of whether speakers of different languages perceive the 
world differently is of course an old one, but Boroditky's research on 
language and cognition a new way of looking at possible answers.  See: 
www-psych.stanford.edu/~lera/

Best regards,
Dianna


On 9/3/10 3:48 AM, Kenneth Brostrom wrote:
> As an old friend and native Detroiter pointed out to me some time ago, 
> the East Side of Detroit is a basic grid, but the streets run from 
> west southwest to east northeast, and from south southeast to north 
> northwest.  The early French settlers came up with this scheme in 
> order to have the former streets parallel the Detroit River. The 
> Germans, however, developed the West Side, and there the street grid 
> is true north-south and east-west.  Where the two sides meet in the 
> middle is an often confusing muddle, a mute and lasting testament to 
> cultural conflict, and a perfect place in which to get lost on a dark 
> and stormy night.  I speak from unhappy experience. Coming from a 
> Scando-Germanic background, whenever I leave the East Side, that zone 
> of Gallic whimsicality, and enter the West Side with its Teutonic good 
> sense, I heave a huge sigh of relief, and my well trained car with 
> me.  And it is westward ho! back home to Ann Arbor.
>
> Cheers,
> Ken Brostrom
>
>
>> The fact that Russians don't use compass directions has always been
>> frustrating to me. Whenever I come out of a Moscow metro station that 
>> I have
>> never seen before, my first instinct is to try and figure out where 
>> north
>> is. If I know that, I can find almost anything. But alas, on a cloudy 
>> day or
>> at night, with no sun for guidance, I know that no one I ask will be 
>> able to
>> tell me where north is. Of course, in the northern part of the city, 
>> I can
>> use Ostankino as a marker. But elsewhere it's hopeless. Maybe I 
>> should carry
>> around a compass.
>>
>> Perhaps I'm atypical, even for an American. My wife is ready to 
>> divorce me
>> every time I say something like "It's on the southeast corner of 
>> Wisconsin
>> Avenue and Reservoir Road."
>>
>> -Rich Robin
>>
>> -- 
>> Richard M. Robin
>> Director Russian Language Program
>> The George Washington University
>> Washington, DC 20052
>> 202-994-7081
>>
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-- 
Dianna L. Murphy, Ph.D.
Associate Director, Language Institute
Associate Director, Russian Flagship Program
University of Wisconsin-Madison
1322 Van Hise Hall, 1220 Linden Avenue
Madison, WI  53706
(608) 262-1575
diannamurphy at wisc.edu
www.languageinstitute.wisc.edu
www.sla.wisc.edu
www.russianflagship.wisc.edu



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