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

Summary

本视频演讲探讨了语言如何深刻影响我们的思维方式。演讲者通过多个例子，如澳大利亚土著Kuuk Thaayorre人使用基本方向而非左右来交流，展示了语言结构如何塑造空间和时间的认知。此外，语言差异也影响我们对颜色、数量和事件的理解。演讲强调了语言多样性的重要性，同时指出我们正在失去这种多样性，呼吁科学界扩大研究范围，以更全面地理解人类思维。

Takeaways

• 🗣️ 人类能够通过语言传递复杂思想，这是人类独有的神奇能力。
• 🌐 世界上大约有7000种语言，每种语言在声音、词汇和结构上都有所不同。
• 🤔 语言是否塑造了我们的思维方式是一个古老而复杂的问题，历史上对此有不同观点。
• 📊 现代科学研究表明，语言的确会影响我们的思维方式，例如澳大利亚土著Kuuk Thaayorre人使用基本方向而非左右来描述空间。
• 🧭 Kuuk Thaayorre人的语言使他们能够更好地保持方向感，这与我们通常认为的人类方向感较差的观点相反。
• ⏳ 不同语言中对时间的理解也有所不同，Kuuk Thaayorre人将时间与地理景观相联系，而非身体方向。
• 🔢 有些语言没有精确的数字词汇，这影响了说话者对数量的感知和计数能力。
• 🌈 语言对颜色的划分也各不相同，例如俄语区分浅蓝和深蓝，而英语则用一个词来描述整个蓝色范围。
• 🧠 语言的差异甚至影响我们对颜色的感知速度和大脑对颜色变化的反应。
• 📚 语法性别的存在，如德语和西班牙语对太阳和月亮性别的不同，会影响说话者对相关概念的描述。
• 🏷️ 语言结构的差异导致说话者对事件的关注点不同，如英语和西班牙语在描述事故时的不同。
• 🌍 语言多样性揭示了人类思维的创造性和灵活性，但目前我们对人类心智的了解大多基于对特定群体的研究，这限制了我们的视野。
• 💔 语言多样性正在迅速丧失，这不仅是文化损失，也限制了我们对人类心智多样性的理解。

Q & A

人类如何通过语言传递复杂的想法？

人类通过语言传递复杂想法的过程包括：说话者通过呼气时发出的声音，如音调、嘶嘶声和吹气声，产生空气中的振动。这些振动传播到听者那里，撞击他们的耳膜，然后大脑将这些振动转化为思想。

世界上大约有多少种语言？

世界上大约有7000种语言。

语言的不同之处主要体现在哪些方面？

语言的不同之处主要体现在声音、词汇和结构上，其中结构的差异尤为重要。

语言是否塑造了我们的思维方式？

这是一个古老的问题，人们对此进行了长期的讨论。不同的文化和语言可能会以不同的方式影响人们的思维方式。

Kuuk Thaayorre人如何使用基本方向而不是左右来交流？

Kuuk Thaayorre人在他们的语言中不使用'左'和'右'这样的词，而是使用基本方向如北、南、东和西来描述所有事物，包括问候语。

为什么Kuuk Thaayorre人能够很好地保持方向感？

Kuuk Thaayorre人能够很好地保持方向感，因为他们的语言和文化训练他们这样做。他们必须在日常生活中不断报告自己的行进方向，这使得他们能够快速定位自己。

不同语言中关于时间的表达方式有哪些差异？

不同语言中关于时间的表达方式差异很大。例如，英语使用者可能会从左到右组织时间，而Kuuk Thaayorre人会根据他们面向的方向来组织时间，时间的流动与他们面向的景观有关。

为什么有些语言中没有确切的数字词？

有些语言中没有确切的数字词，是因为这些语言的使用者不需要通过计数来追踪确切的数量。这可能导致他们在处理数量匹配任务时遇到困难。

语言如何影响我们对颜色的感知和命名？

不同语言对颜色的命名和区分不同。例如，英语中有一个词'blue'来描述所有屏幕上的颜色，而俄语中则需要区分'浅蓝'（goluboy）和'深蓝'（siniy）。

为什么俄语使用者在区分浅蓝和深蓝时更快？

俄语使用者在区分浅蓝和深蓝时更快，因为他们的语言要求他们在语言中区分这两种颜色。这种一生的语言经验使得他们在视觉上更快地识别颜色差异。

语言中的语法性别如何影响我们对事物的看法？

语言中的语法性别可能会影响我们对事物的看法。例如，德语使用者可能会将太阳视为更女性化，而月亮更男性化，因为在德语中太阳是阴性，月亮是阳性。

不同语言中描述事件的方式有哪些差异？

不同语言中描述事件的方式差异很大。例如，在英语中，我们可能会说'他打破了花瓶'，而在西班牙语中，人们可能会说'花瓶自己破了'，尤其是在描述意外事件时。

语言如何影响我们对事件的记忆和解释？

语言影响我们对事件的记忆和解释。例如，英语使用者更可能记住谁做了什么，因为英语要求明确指出行为者；而西班牙语使用者可能更关注事件是否是意外，因此他们更可能记住事件的意图。

为什么语言学的多样性对我们理解人类思维很重要？

语言学的多样性揭示了人类思维的创造性和灵活性。不同的语言和文化创造了不同的思维方式，这有助于我们理解人类思维的广泛可能性。

为什么语言学的多样性正在减少，这对我们有什么意义？

语言学的多样性正在减少，因为全球化和语言同化导致一些小语种逐渐消失。这意味着我们失去了理解不同思维方式的机会，这对科学研究和文化多样性都是一个损失。

目前关于人类思维和大脑的知识存在哪些偏见？

目前关于人类思维和大脑的知识主要基于对美国英语使用者的研究，这排除了几乎所有其他人类，导致我们对人类思维的理解非常狭窄和有偏见。

Outlines

00:00

🗣️ 语言与思维：人类沟通的魔力

本段讲述了人类语言的神奇能力，即通过声音传递复杂思想。演讲者通过描述语言如何通过空气振动传递信息，强调了语言在跨时空传递思想和知识中的作用。同时，提出了一个古老问题：语言是否塑造了我们的思维方式。通过引用历史人物的观点，展示了这一问题的复杂性，并指出现代科学研究开始为这个问题提供数据支持。

05:02

🧭 方向感与语言：Kuuk Thaayorre人的例子

这一段通过介绍澳大利亚土著Kuuk Thaayorre人的语言习惯，探讨了语言如何影响空间方向感。Kuuk Thaayorre人不使用'左'和'右'，而是用基本方向词，这要求他们在日常生活中不断报告自己的朝向。研究表明，使用这种语言的人们在空间定位上表现得比我们以往认为的更好，这表明语言和文化的训练可以显著提高人类的空间定向能力。

10:04

⏳ 时间观念与语言：Kuuk Thaayorre人的时间观

此段深入探讨了Kuuk Thaayorre人如何将时间和空间联系起来，他们的时间观念与方向紧密相关，而不是固定在身体上。实验表明，他们根据面向的方向组织时间的流逝，这与大多数语言使用者的时间观念截然不同，揭示了语言如何深刻影响我们对时间的感知和理解。

🔢 数字与计数：语言对数学能力的影响

本段讨论了语言中数字词汇的有无如何影响人们的计数能力和对数量的感知。一些语言缺乏精确的数字词汇，导致使用者在计数和追踪确切数量上存在困难。这种语言差异反映了语言结构如何影响基本的认知过程，如数量感知和数学能力。

🌈 颜色感知：语言对视觉世界的影响

这一段通过颜色词汇的差异，展示了语言如何影响我们对颜色的感知和区分。例如，英语中'蓝色'是一个词，而在俄语中则区分为浅蓝'goluboy'和深蓝'siniy'。研究发现，使用不同词汇描述颜色的语言使用者在颜色辨别任务中表现更快，大脑对颜色变化的反应也不同，这揭示了语言对基本感知决策的影响。

📚 语言结构与思维：性别、事件描述与记忆

本段探讨了语言结构如何影响我们对性别、事件和记忆的认知。例如，语法性别的存在导致不同语言的使用者对太阳和月亮的性别感知不同。事件描述的差异，如英语和西班牙语中对事故的描述，会影响目击者的记忆和对事件责任的判断。这些例子说明了语言如何塑造我们对世界的理解和感知。

🌐 语言多样性与思维：人类认知的丰富性

最后一段总结了语言多样性如何揭示人类思维的灵活性和创造性。世界上有7000种语言，每种语言都创造了独特的认知世界。然而，语言多样性正在迅速丧失，这对我们对人类心智的理解构成了威胁。演讲者呼吁科学界扩大研究范围，以更全面地理解人类心智，并鼓励我们反思自己的思维方式。

Keywords

💡语言

语言是人类沟通思想和情感的符号系统，它不仅仅是声音和文字的组合，更是文化和认知的载体。视频中提到，语言能够传递复杂的想法，并且不同的语言结构和词汇会影响人们的思维方式。例如，Kuuk Thaayorre语言不使用'左'和'右'这样的相对方向词，而是使用基本方向词，这影响了说话者对空间的感知和导航能力。

💡认知能力

认知能力指的是个体处理信息、进行思考和解决问题的能力。视频中通过比较不同语言使用者在空间定向、时间感知、颜色区分等方面的表现，展示了语言如何影响认知能力。例如，Kuuk Thaayorre语言使用者在空间定向上的表现优于其他语言使用者，因为他们的语言要求他们时刻保持对方向的敏感。

💡空间定向

空间定向是指个体在环境中确定位置和方向的能力。视频中提到，Kuuk Thaayorre语言的使用者能够非常精确地保持空间定向，因为他们的语言和文化训练他们使用基本方向词来描述空间关系，而不是相对方向词如'左'和'右'。

💡时间感知

时间感知是人们对时间流逝和顺序的认识。视频中指出，Kuuk Thaayorre语言的使用者将时间感知与地理方向联系起来，而不是与身体方向联系。这意味着他们组织时间的方式与面向不同方向时的空间布局有关，展现了时间感知与语言和文化紧密相关。

💡颜色区分

颜色区分是指人们对不同颜色的识别和区分能力。视频中提到，不同语言对颜色的命名和分类方式不同，这影响了说话者的颜色感知能力。例如，俄语中区分浅蓝色'goluboy'和深蓝色'siniy'，使得俄语使用者在区分这两种颜色时反应更快。

💡数字概念

数字概念是人们对数量和数值的理解能力。视频中通过比较有精确数字词的语言和没有精确数字词的语言，说明了数字词的存在与否如何影响人们的计数和数量跟踪能力。

💡语言多样性

语言多样性指的是世界上存在多种不同的语言和方言。视频中强调了语言多样性的重要性，它揭示了人类思维的灵活性和创造性。然而，语言多样性正面临丧失的危机，许多语言正在逐渐消失。

💡文化影响

文化影响是指文化因素如何塑造个体的思维方式和行为模式。视频中通过语言的例子，展示了文化如何通过语言影响人们对空间、时间、颜色等的认知，以及对事件的解释和记忆。

💡语法性别

语法性别是某些语言中对名词进行性别分类的语法特征。视频中提到，不同语言中太阳和月亮的性别可能不同，这可能影响说话者对这些自然现象的感知和描述，从而体现了语言结构如何影响思维内容。

💡事件描述

事件描述是人们对发生的事情进行叙述的方式。视频中通过比较英语和西班牙语中对事故的描述，说明了语言结构如何影响人们对事件责任归属和意图的理解，以及记忆和证词的形成。

💡认知框架

认知框架是指个体理解和解释信息的心理结构。视频中提到，不同的语言使用者可能会根据其语言习惯，在空间、时间和数量等方面构建不同的认知框架，从而影响他们对世界的感知和理解。

Highlights

人类能够通过语言传递复杂思想。

全球约有7000种语言，每种语言在声音、词汇和结构上都有差异。

语言是否塑造我们的思维方式是一个古老问题。

Kuuk Thaayorre族语言不使用“左”和“右”，而使用基本方向。

说Kuuk Thaayorre语的人能更好地保持方向感。

不同语言中人们对时间的理解方式不同。

Kuuk Thaayorre族按地理方向组织时间概念。

一些语言没有精确的数字词，影响人们的数量概念。

语言中颜色词汇的差异影响人们对颜色的感知。

俄语中区分浅蓝和深蓝，影响颜色识别速度。

许多语言具有语法性别，影响人们对名词属性的认知。

德语和西班牙语的性别差异影响人们对太阳和月亮的描述。

语言描述事件的方式影响人们对事件的记忆和理解。

语言影响人们对责任、惩罚和目击者记忆的看法。

语言的多样性揭示了人类思维的灵活性和创造力。

目前对人类心智的研究大多基于英语母语者，这限制了我们的认知。

语言多样性的丧失可能导致我们对人类认知的了解变得狭窄。

语言不仅影响他人，也深刻塑造了我们每个人的思维方式。

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)