How language shapes the way we think | Lera Boroditsky | TED

Summary

The video script explores the profound impact of language on human cognition. It illustrates how different languages can shape our perception of space, time, number, color, and even our sense of blame and punishment. The speaker, through various examples, including the Kuuk Thaayorre people's cardinal direction-based language and the Russian language's distinction between light and dark blue, demonstrates how linguistic diversity reveals the flexibility and ingenuity of the human mind. The talk also highlights the importance of preserving linguistic diversity, as we stand to lose about half of the world's languages in the next century. The speaker emphasizes that our current understanding of the human mind is largely based on a narrow demographic, urging for a more inclusive approach in scientific research.

Takeaways

• 🗣️ Language is a powerful tool that allows humans to transmit complex thoughts to one another through speech.
• 🌐 There are approximately 7,000 languages worldwide, each with unique sounds, vocabularies, and structures.
• 🤔 The question of whether language shapes thought has been debated for centuries, with recent scientific research providing new insights.
• 🧭 The Kuuk Thaayorre people of Australia use cardinal directions instead of 'left' and 'right,' which influences their spatial orientation.
• ⏳ Different languages can influence how people perceive time, as demonstrated by the Kuuk Thaayorre's association of time with the landscape rather than the body.
• 🐧 Some languages lack exact number words, which can affect a person's ability to count and keep track of quantities.
• 🌈 Language can affect color perception; for example, Russian speakers differentiate between light and dark blue more quickly due to distinct linguistic terms.
• 🧠 Brain activity varies between language speakers when perceiving colors, indicating that language can influence cognitive processing.
• 💭 Grammatical gender in languages can influence how speakers perceive and describe objects, as seen in the descriptions of bridges by German and Spanish speakers.
• 📚 Language structures can shape memory and reasoning about events, with implications for eyewitness testimony and the assignment of blame.
• 🌍 Linguistic diversity reveals the ingeniousness and flexibility of the human mind, with each language offering a unique cognitive universe.
• ⏰ The loss of linguistic diversity is a significant concern, as it represents a loss of cognitive variety and a narrowing of our understanding of the human mind.

Q & A

How does language enable humans to communicate complex thoughts?

Language enables humans to communicate complex thoughts by transforming sounds made by the mouth during exhalation into air vibrations, which travel to the listener's eardrums and are then interpreted by the brain into thoughts.

What is the impact of linguistic diversity on the human mind?

Linguistic diversity reveals the ingenious and flexible nature of the human mind, suggesting that there are as many cognitive universes as there are languages, each shaping the way its speakers think.

How does the Kuuk Thaayorre language influence its speakers' sense of direction?

The Kuuk Thaayorre language, which uses cardinal directions instead of 'left' and 'right,' helps its speakers maintain a strong sense of direction, with even young children being able to accurately identify and use directions in everyday communication.

In what way does the Kuuk Thaayorre language approach the concept of time?

The Kuuk Thaayorre language approaches the concept of time by associating it with the landscape rather than the body. This means that the direction of time changes based on the speaker's orientation to the cardinal directions.

How do some languages without exact number words affect their speakers' ability to count?

Speakers of languages without exact number words often do not count and have difficulty keeping track of exact quantities, which can impact their numerical and mathematical abilities.

What is the difference in color perception between speakers of languages that have a single word for blue and those that differentiate between light and dark blue?

Speakers of languages that differentiate between light and dark blue, such as Russian, are faster at perceiving the difference between these colors and show a distinct brain reaction when colors shift across this linguistic boundary.

How does grammatical gender in languages affect speakers' perception of objects?

Grammatical gender can influence speakers' perception and description of objects. For example, German speakers, for whom the word for 'bridge' is grammatically feminine, are more likely to describe bridges with feminine words like 'beautiful' and 'elegant,' whereas Spanish speakers might use more masculine descriptors.

What is the impact of language on eyewitness memory and the assignment of blame?

Language can shape eyewitness memory and the assignment of blame by influencing what details are remembered. For instance, English speakers are more likely to remember who caused an accident because English requires the use of an active verb, whereas Spanish speakers might be more likely to remember that it was an accident.

How fast is the rate at which languages are disappearing, and what is the projected loss over the next hundred years?

Languages are disappearing at a rate of about one per week, and it is estimated that half of the world's languages will be gone in the next hundred years.

What is the current bias in scientific studies of the human mind and brain?

The current bias in scientific studies of the human mind and brain is that they are largely based on research involving American English-speaking undergraduates at universities, which excludes a vast majority of humans and does not account for the diversity of linguistic and cognitive experiences.

What is the significance of understanding how language shapes thought in our daily lives?

Understanding how language shapes thought is significant because it allows individuals to question their own thought processes, explore different ways of thinking, and consider the types of thoughts they wish to create or communicate.

Outlines

00:00

🗣️ The Power of Language and Thought

The speaker begins by highlighting the unique human ability to use language to convey complex thoughts through sounds and air vibrations. They emphasize that language allows us to share ideas across distances and time, and even implant new concepts into others' minds. The speaker then poses the question of whether the language we speak influences our thought processes, referencing historical perspectives from Charlemagne and Shakespeare. They introduce scientific research that provides insights into this age-old question, starting with an example from the Kuuk Thaayorre people of Australia, who use cardinal directions instead of 'left' and 'right,' indicating that language indeed shapes our cognitive abilities.

05:02

🧭 Orientation and the Influence of Language

The speaker discusses how the Kuuk Thaayorre language affects the way its speakers perceive and interact with their environment. Unlike many other languages, Kuuk Thaayorre does not use relative terms like 'left' and 'right,' but instead relies on cardinal directions, which leads to a heightened sense of spatial orientation. This linguistic feature is demonstrated through the way Kuuk Thaayorre speakers greet each other by sharing their heading direction. The speaker contrasts this with the audience's difficulty in pointing to a specific cardinal direction when asked to do so with their eyes closed, highlighting the significant cognitive differences across languages. The summary also touches on how different languages conceptualize time and the impact of writing direction on this perception.

10:04

🌈 Language and Perception of Time, Quantity, and Color

The speaker explores further examples of how language influences thought, including the Kuuk Thaayorre's unique approach to organizing time based on the landscape rather than the body. They describe how the Kuuk Thaayorre's perception of time changes depending on the direction they are facing. The speaker also delves into how different languages affect the way people count and estimate quantities, noting that some languages lack exact number words, which can hinder mathematical understanding. Additionally, they discuss the impact of language on color perception, using the example of Russian speakers who distinguish between light and dark blue, leading to faster perceptual discrimination and a neurological difference in brain response to color changes. The speaker also touches on grammatical gender in languages and its effect on how speakers perceive and describe objects.

💭 Language, Memory, and Cultural Perception

The speaker concludes with a discussion on how language affects memory and the attribution of blame and punishment. They explain that language structures can lead witnesses to remember different aspects of the same event, with English speakers more likely to recall who caused an accident, while Spanish speakers might focus more on the fact that it was an accident. This has implications for eyewitness testimony and legal systems. The speaker also addresses the broader effects of language on thought, such as the influence of grammatical gender on how speakers think about objects and the potential for language to shape our most personal and profound ideas. They emphasize the importance of linguistic diversity and the need for a more inclusive approach to studying the human mind, given that much of current knowledge is based on a limited demographic. The speaker ends with a call to reflect on how our own language shapes our thinking and encourages considering alternative ways of thought.

Keywords

💡Language

Language is a system of communication using words, sounds, gestures, or symbols. It is central to the video's theme as it explores how different languages can shape our thoughts and perceptions. The video discusses the diversity of languages and how they influence cognitive abilities, such as orientation, counting, and color perception.

💡Cognitive Abilities

Cognitive abilities refer to the mental capacities or functions that underlie intellectual activities such as thinking, understanding, learning, and remembering. The video emphasizes that language can affect these abilities, as seen in how speakers of different languages perceive directions, count quantities, and understand concepts like time.

💡Linguistic Diversity

Linguistic diversity denotes the variety of languages spoken around the world. The video highlights the importance of this diversity in showcasing the flexibility and ingenuity of the human mind. It also raises concerns about the loss of linguistic diversity and its impact on our understanding of the human psyche.

💡Orientation

Orientation refers to the awareness of one's position or direction relative to one's surroundings. The video uses the example of the Kuuk Thaayorre people, who use cardinal directions in their language, to illustrate how language can enhance spatial orientation skills.

💡Cardinal Directions

Cardinal directions are the four principal directions—north, south, east, and west—that are used for navigation and orientation. The video explains that the Kuuk Thaayorre language incorporates these directions in everyday speech, which affects how its speakers perceive and interact with their environment.

💡Color Perception

Color perception is the ability to see and distinguish different colors. The video discusses how language can influence this ability, as demonstrated by the Russian language's distinction between light blue ('goluboy') and dark blue ('siniy'), which affects how Russian speakers perceive and categorize colors.

💡Grammatical Gender

Grammatical gender is a linguistic feature where nouns are assigned a gender (often masculine or feminine) that can affect the agreement of associated words. The video shows how this feature can shape thought, as German speakers might perceive the sun as more feminine due to its feminine gender in the language.

💡Number Words

Number words are the linguistic elements used to count and express quantities. The video points out that the presence or absence of exact number words in a language can impact a speaker's ability to count and their cognitive engagement with mathematical concepts.

💡Eyewitness Testimony

Eyewitness testimony refers to evidence given by a person who has witnessed an event, often used in legal contexts. The video suggests that language can influence what details an eyewitness remembers, such as the agent of an action or the nature of an event (accidental or intentional), which has implications for the reliability of such testimony.

💡Blame and Punishment

Blame and punishment are concepts related to assigning responsibility and administering consequences for wrongdoing. The video argues that language can shape our perception of responsibility and the severity of punishment, as shown by how English speakers are more likely to blame an individual if an action is described using an active voice rather than passive voice.

💡Cultural Training

Cultural training refers to the process by which a society or culture educates its members in the norms, values, and skills considered important. The video uses the example of how Kuuk Thaayorre speakers are trained to maintain a strong sense of direction to demonstrate how cultural practices, reinforced by language, can enhance cognitive abilities.

Highlights

Language is a uniquely human ability that allows us to transmit complex thoughts.

The Kuuk Thaayorre people in Australia use cardinal directions instead of 'left' and 'right'.

Speakers of languages that emphasize cardinal directions have a better sense of orientation.

Different languages structure time differently, with Kuuk Thaayorre linking time to the landscape rather than the body.

Languages without exact number words can affect a person's ability to count and keep track of quantities.

The way languages divide the color spectrum can influence color perception and cognitive processing.

Russian speakers differentiate between light and dark blue, which affects their brain's reaction to color changes.

Grammatical gender in languages can shape how speakers think about objects and concepts.

Different languages can lead to different memories and interpretations of the same event.

Language can influence eyewitness testimony and the assignment of blame and punishment.

Language shapes our reasoning about events and can have profound effects on our cognitive processes.

Linguistic diversity reveals the ingenious and flexible nature of the human mind.

We are losing linguistic diversity at an alarming rate, with about one language disappearing every week.

Most current knowledge about the human mind is based on a narrow demographic, leading to biased understanding.

Language can shape even the most basic perceptual decisions we make.

The way we speak influences our thoughts, offering opportunities for self-reflection on our thought processes.

The potential for creating new thoughts and ideas is inherent in the diversity of languages spoken around the world.

Transcripts

So, I'll be speaking to you using language ...

because I can.

This is one these magical abilities that we humans have.

We can transmit really complicated thoughts to one another.

So what I'm doing right now is, I'm making sounds with my mouth

as I'm exhaling.

I'm making tones and hisses and puffs,

and those are creating air vibrations in the air.

Those air vibrations are traveling to you,

they're hitting your eardrums,

and then your brain takes those vibrations from your eardrums

and transforms them into thoughts.

I hope.

(Laughter)

I hope that's happening.

So because of this ability, we humans are able to transmit our ideas

across vast reaches of space and time.

We're able to transmit knowledge across minds.

I can put a bizarre new idea in your mind right now.

I could say,

"Imagine a jellyfish waltzing in a library

while thinking about quantum mechanics."

(Laughter)

Now, if everything has gone relatively well in your life so far,

you probably haven't had that thought before.

(Laughter)

But now I've just made you think it,

through language.

Now of course, there isn't just one language in the world,

there are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world.

And all the languages differ from one another in all kinds of ways.

Some languages have different sounds,

they have different vocabularies,

and they also have different structures --

very importantly, different structures.

That begs the question:

Does the language we speak shape the way we think?

Now, this is an ancient question.

People have been speculating about this question forever.

Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor, said,

"To have a second language is to have a second soul" --

strong statement that language crafts reality.

But on the other hand, Shakespeare has Juliet say,

"What's in a name?

A rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

Well, that suggests that maybe language doesn't craft reality.

These arguments have gone back and forth for thousands of years.

But until recently, there hasn't been any data

to help us decide either way.

Recently, in my lab and other labs around the world,

we've started doing research,

and now we have actual scientific data to weigh in on this question.

So let me tell you about some of my favorite examples.

I'll start with an example from an Aboriginal community in Australia

that I had the chance to work with.

These are the Kuuk Thaayorre people.

They live in Pormpuraaw at the very west edge of Cape York.

What's cool about Kuuk Thaayorre is,

in Kuuk Thaayorre, they don't use words like "left" and "right,"

and instead, everything is in cardinal directions:

north, south, east and west.

And when I say everything, I really mean everything.

You would say something like,

"Oh, there's an ant on your southwest leg."

Or, "Move your cup to the north-northeast a little bit."

In fact, the way that you say "hello" in Kuuk Thaayorre is you say,

"Which way are you going?"

And the answer should be,

"North-northeast in the far distance.

How about you?"

So imagine as you're walking around your day,

every person you greet,

you have to report your heading direction.

(Laughter)

But that would actually get you oriented pretty fast, right?

Because you literally couldn't get past "hello,"

if you didn't know which way you were going.

In fact, people who speak languages like this stay oriented really well.

They stay oriented better than we used to think humans could.

We used to think that humans were worse than other creatures

because of some biological excuse:

"Oh, we don't have magnets in our beaks or in our scales."

No; if your language and your culture trains you to do it,

actually, you can do it.

There are humans around the world who stay oriented really well.

And just to get us in agreement

about how different this is from the way we do it,

I want you all to close your eyes for a second

and point southeast.

(Laughter)

Keep your eyes closed. Point.

OK, so you can open your eyes.

I see you guys pointing there, there, there, there, there ...

I don't know which way it is myself --

(Laughter)

You have not been a lot of help.

(Laughter)

So let's just say the accuracy in this room was not very high.

This is a big difference in cognitive ability across languages, right?

Where one group -- very distinguished group like you guys --

doesn't know which way is which,

but in another group,

I could ask a five-year-old and they would know.

(Laughter)

There are also really big differences in how people think about time.

So here I have pictures of my grandfather at different ages.

And if I ask an English speaker to organize time,

they might lay it out this way,

from left to right.

This has to do with writing direction.

If you were a speaker of Hebrew or Arabic,

you might do it going in the opposite direction,

from right to left.

But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre,

this Aboriginal group I just told you about, do it?

They don't use words like "left" and "right."

Let me give you hint.

When we sat people facing south,

they organized time from left to right.

When we sat them facing north,

they organized time from right to left.

When we sat them facing east,

time came towards the body.

What's the pattern?

East to west, right?

So for them, time doesn't actually get locked on the body at all,

it gets locked on the landscape.

So for me, if I'm facing this way,

then time goes this way,

and if I'm facing this way, then time goes this way.

I'm facing this way, time goes this way --

very egocentric of me to have the direction of time chase me around

every time I turn my body.

For the Kuuk Thaayorre, time is locked on the landscape.

It's a dramatically different way of thinking about time.

Here's another really smart human trick.

Suppose I ask you how many penguins are there.

Well, I bet I know how you'd solve that problem if you solved it.

You went, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight."

You counted them.

You named each one with a number,

and the last number you said was the number of penguins.

This is a little trick that you're taught to use as kids.

You learn the number list and you learn how to apply it.

A little linguistic trick.

Well, some languages don't do this,

because some languages don't have exact number words.

They're languages that don't have a word like "seven"

or a word like "eight."

In fact, people who speak these languages don't count,

and they have trouble keeping track of exact quantities.

So, for example, if I ask you to match this number of penguins

to the same number of ducks,

you would be able to do that by counting.

But folks who don't have that linguistic trick can't do that.

Languages also differ in how they divide up the color spectrum --

the visual world.

Some languages have lots of words for colors,

some have only a couple words, "light" and "dark."

And languages differ in where they put boundaries between colors.

So, for example, in English, there's a word for blue

that covers all of the colors that you can see on the screen,

but in Russian, there isn't a single word.

Instead, Russian speakers have to differentiate

between light blue, "goluboy,"

and dark blue, "siniy."

So Russians have this lifetime of experience of, in language,

distinguishing these two colors.

When we test people's ability to perceptually discriminate these colors,

what we find is that Russian speakers are faster

across this linguistic boundary.

They're faster to be able to tell the difference

between a light and dark blue.

And when you look at people's brains as they're looking at colors --

say you have colors shifting slowly from light to dark blue --

the brains of people who use different words for light and dark blue

will give a surprised reaction as the colors shift from light to dark,

as if, "Ooh, something has categorically changed,"

whereas the brains of English speakers, for example,

that don't make this categorical distinction,

don't give that surprise,

because nothing is categorically changing.

Languages have all kinds of structural quirks.

This is one of my favorites.

Lots of languages have grammatical gender;

every noun gets assigned a gender, often masculine or feminine.

And these genders differ across languages.

So, for example, the sun is feminine in German but masculine in Spanish,

and the moon, the reverse.

Could this actually have any consequence for how people think?

Do German speakers think of the sun as somehow more female-like,

and the moon somehow more male-like?

Actually, it turns out that's the case.

So if you ask German and Spanish speakers to, say, describe a bridge,

like the one here --

"bridge" happens to be grammatically feminine in German,

grammatically masculine in Spanish --

German speakers are more likely to say bridges are "beautiful," "elegant"

and stereotypically feminine words.

Whereas Spanish speakers will be more likely to say

they're "strong" or "long,"

these masculine words.

(Laughter)

Languages also differ in how they describe events, right?

You take an event like this, an accident.

In English, it's fine to say, "He broke the vase."

In a language like Spanish,

you might be more likely to say, "The vase broke,"

or, "The vase broke itself."

If it's an accident, you wouldn't say that someone did it.

In English, quite weirdly, we can even say things like,

"I broke my arm."

Now, in lots of languages,

you couldn't use that construction unless you are a lunatic

and you went out looking to break your arm --

(Laughter)

and you succeeded.

If it was an accident, you would use a different construction.

Now, this has consequences.

So, people who speak different languages will pay attention to different things,

depending on what their language usually requires them to do.

So we show the same accident to English speakers and Spanish speakers,

English speakers will remember who did it,

because English requires you to say, "He did it; he broke the vase."

Whereas Spanish speakers might be less likely to remember who did it

if it's an accident,

but they're more likely to remember that it was an accident.

They're more likely to remember the intention.

So, two people watch the same event,

witness the same crime,

but end up remembering different things about that event.

This has implications, of course, for eyewitness testimony.

It also has implications for blame and punishment.

So if you take English speakers

and I just show you someone breaking a vase,

and I say, "He broke the vase," as opposed to "The vase broke,"

even though you can witness it yourself,

you can watch the video,

you can watch the crime against the vase,

you will punish someone more,

you will blame someone more if I just said, "He broke it,"

as opposed to, "It broke."

The language guides our reasoning about events.

Now, I've given you a few examples

of how language can profoundly shape the way we think,

and it does so in a variety of ways.

So language can have big effects,

like we saw with space and time,

where people can lay out space and time

in completely different coordinate frames from each other.

Language can also have really deep effects --

that's what we saw with the case of number.

Having count words in your language,

having number words,

opens up the whole world of mathematics.

Of course, if you don't count, you can't do algebra,

you can't do any of the things

that would be required to build a room like this

or make this broadcast, right?

This little trick of number words gives you a stepping stone

into a whole cognitive realm.

Language can also have really early effects,

what we saw in the case of color.

These are really simple, basic, perceptual decisions.

We make thousands of them all the time,

and yet, language is getting in there

and fussing even with these tiny little perceptual decisions that we make.

Language can have really broad effects.

So the case of grammatical gender may be a little silly,

but at the same time, grammatical gender applies to all nouns.

That means language can shape how you're thinking

about anything that can be named by a noun.

That's a lot of stuff.

And finally, I gave you an example of how language can shape things

that have personal weight to us --

ideas like blame and punishment or eyewitness memory.

These are important things in our daily lives.

Now, the beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us

just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is.

Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000 --

there are 7,000 languages spoken around the world.

And we can create many more --

languages, of course, are living things,

things that we can hone and change to suit our needs.

The tragic thing is that we're losing so much of this linguistic diversity

all the time.

We're losing about one language a week,

and by some estimates,

half of the world's languages will be gone in the next hundred years.

And the even worse news is that right now,

almost everything we know about the human mind and human brain

is based on studies of usually American English-speaking undergraduates

at universities.

That excludes almost all humans. Right?

So what we know about the human mind is actually incredibly narrow and biased,

and our science has to do better.

I want to leave you with this final thought.

I've told you about how speakers of different languages think differently,

but of course, that's not about how people elsewhere think.

It's about how you think.

It's how the language that you speak shapes the way that you think.

And that gives you the opportunity to ask,

"Why do I think the way that I do?"

"How could I think differently?"

And also,

"What thoughts do I wish to create?"

Thank you very much.

(Applause)