'Idioma que falamos determina como pensamos': o pesquisador que cresceu com indígenas na Amazônia

Summary

Caleb Everett's research challenges the belief that all languages share the same fundamental concepts, suggesting that different cultures perceive and think about the world in unique ways. By studying languages like Pirahã, which lack features like recursivity and verb tenses, Everett highlights how language shapes cognition. His work explores how indigenous languages, particularly in the Amazon, reflect distinct worldviews, emphasizing the profound link between language, thought, and environment. Everett also stresses the urgent need to preserve endangered languages, as they offer invaluable insights into diverse ways of understanding the world.

Takeaways

• 😀 Linguists once believed that all languages share basic categories to express ideas and objects, but new research challenges this idea, suggesting that different languages shape how people think and see the world.
• 😀 A new book by linguist Caleb Everett argues that many basic concepts are not universal and that speakers of different languages perceive the world differently.
• 😀 Caleb Everett's childhood in Brazil, living among the indigenous Pirahã people, significantly influenced his research and understanding of linguistic diversity.
• 😀 Everett's father, Daniel Everett, made a controversial discovery that the Pirahã language lacks recursion, a key feature of many other languages, challenging Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar.
• 😀 Contrary to popular belief, the idea that Eskimos have 50 words for snow is a myth, but it highlights the broader truth that language shapes how people think about their environment.
• 😀 Many indigenous Amazonian languages, like Karitiana, Pirahã, and Munduruku, lack concepts of time as we know it, making it difficult for speakers to express past or future tenses or measure exact quantities like '30 minutes'.
• 😀 Indigenous languages in the Amazon have radically different concepts of time; some languages have no words for hours or minutes and perceive time in a more fluid, less segmented way.
• 😀 In some indigenous cultures, when discussing the past and future, people point in the opposite direction compared to speakers of English, reflecting a different conceptualization of time.
• 😀 The diversity of the world's 7,400 languages illustrates the diversity of human thought and challenges the notion that Western concepts represent the universal human experience.
• 😀 Many endangered languages are rapidly disappearing, and linguists are urgently working to document them, as they offer unique insights into human cognition and cultural diversity.

Q & A

What is the main argument of Caleb Everett's book regarding language and thought?

Caleb Everett argues that language influences how people perceive and think about the world. He suggests that many languages, especially those spoken by indigenous communities, do not share the same universal categories for expressing ideas and objects, challenging the idea that all human languages are fundamentally alike.

How do languages like Pirahã, Karitiana, and Munduruku challenge traditional linguistic theories?

Languages like Pirahã, Karitiana, and Munduruku challenge traditional linguistic theories by lacking concepts that are considered universal in many languages, such as specific terms for large numbers or tense markers for past and present. This challenges the idea of a 'universal grammar' proposed by Noam Chomsky.

What is the significance of Pirahã's lack of recursivity in its grammar?

Pirahã's lack of recursivity is significant because it contradicts a central idea of Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar, which suggests that all languages have recursive structures. In Pirahã, sentences cannot be nested within one another, revealing that not all languages follow the same grammatical rules.

What does Caleb Everett say about the common belief that Eskimos have many words for snow?

Caleb Everett explains that the popular belief that Eskimos have more than fifty words for snow is a myth. However, he acknowledges that the underlying idea—that language reflects the environment and shapes how people perceive it—is valid. In this case, snow is more relevant to their culture, which leads to nuanced expressions of it in their language.

How do languages without precise concepts of time, like Karitiana, affect people's understanding of time?

In languages like Karitiana, which lack verb tenses to denote the past, present, or future, speakers cannot easily articulate temporal distinctions. This suggests that people who speak these languages may have a fundamentally different relationship with time, perceiving it in a more fluid or continuous way compared to languages that have discrete markers for temporal events.

Why is the idea that the environment influences language perception important in Everett's research?

Everett's research emphasizes that language is shaped by the environment in which speakers live. For example, indigenous languages may have terms that reflect their natural surroundings but lack terms for things that are irrelevant to their lives, such as snow or abstract quantities. This highlights the adaptive nature of language to the needs of the community.

What does Caleb Everett suggest about the role of language in shaping how people think about the future and past?

Caleb Everett suggests that in some languages, such as those spoken by indigenous groups, there are no fixed concepts of past and future. In fact, some groups point backward when talking about the future and forward when talking about the past, which shows that people from different cultures perceive time in drastically different ways depending on their language and worldview.

How does the lack of formal timekeeping systems in certain indigenous cultures affect their relationship with time?

Without formal timekeeping systems like clocks or calendars, many indigenous cultures perceive time as less segmented. Instead of dividing it into discrete intervals such as hours or minutes, these cultures may view time in a more cyclical or continuous manner, leading to a different cognitive approach to planning and organizing daily activities.

What is the importance of preserving endangered languages according to Caleb Everett?

Caleb Everett stresses the importance of preserving endangered languages because they provide unique insights into how humans think and perceive the world. As many of these languages are disappearing, so are valuable perspectives on time, numbers, and cognition, which could help expand our understanding of human thought and culture.

What does Caleb Everett mean when he says that many linguistic theories are based on a narrow perspective?

Everett argues that many linguistic theories are based on a limited perspective because they predominantly focus on widely spoken languages like English or Portuguese. These languages reflect a narrow portion of human experience, while languages spoken by small indigenous groups offer diverse and often overlooked ways of thinking, which are crucial for understanding the full range of human cognition.