By Grace Varga ‘20

In this ongoing series, I will look at a variety of  TED Talks and describe the fascinating discoveries that TED Talks have to offer.

Part one of this series, we will look at Lera Boroditsky and her TEDTalk, “How Language Shapes the Way we Think”.  Borordisky and her team set out to scientifically weigh in on the question: Does language craft reality? 

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Language affects how reality is perceived. There are over 7,000 languages around the world that use different sounds, vocabulary, and most importantly, structures. Lera Boroditsky and her team have studied how differences in people’s languages change how they view the world around them.  

An Aboriginal tribe in Australia does not have words such as left and right, but uses cardinal direction in most of their language. When greeting, instead of saying hello, or how are you, one would ask, “What direction are you going?”

Language structure differs drastically from one another and each language requires different focus. The tribe’s use and extensive knowledge of their surroundings changed the way that scientists previously thought humans could know their surroundings.

“If your language and culture trains you to do it, you can do it” Boroditsky states about the tribe being so oriented with their cardinal state.

How languages describe color can affect how one distinguishes them visually. In English, there is one overall word for the color blue. In Russian, there are two separate names dividing light and dark blue. Because of this, Russians can visually interpret the change from light to dark blue faster than an English speaker can.

“The brains of people who use different words for light and dark blue will give a surprise reaction as the colors shift from light to dark”, Boroditsky states, “ As if something has categorically changed”.

Language structure has an effect on the characteristics given to objects. Some languages, such as German and Spanish, have masculine and feminine nouns. In Spanish, the moon is feminine whereas it is masculine in German.

Because of these gender assignments, Spanish speakers are more likely to describe the moon as beautiful, elegant—traditionally feminine traits. Whereas German speakers are more likely to describe the moon as big and strong—traditionally masculine attributes.

“People who speak different languages will focus on different things depending on what their language requires them to do”.