Comm 309 Assignment 1

Language and thought

asia

NORTH AMERICA

EUROPe

africa

SOUTH AMERICA

OCEANIA

WORKS CITED

COMM 309 Assignment 1 Isabelle Lacad and Julia Kalina

no numbers

only culture on earth without any numeracy

amazonas

Amazonas, Brazil

Numbers do not exist in the Pirahã tribe as they have no need for them They use words such as "hoi" (a few), "hoi" (somewhat larger), and "baagiso" (a bunch) to descibe quantity and size (Haviland) It is said that although mothers of the Pirahã tribe may not know how many children they have, that does not affect how they feel about their children Concepts as such back up the idea that language and thought are not equivalent (Napoli & Lee-Schoenfeld, 2010)

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Left? Right? Wrong.

navigation in Australian Aboriginal communities

queensland

Queensland, Australia

Utilize cardinal directions such as "north", "northeast", etc. rather than "left" and "right" This allows them to have spectacular spatial awarness According to Lera Boroditsky, speakers of languages like this stay oriented and they can perfrom navigational feats we used to think were beyond human ability

uncles and econmics

how language may help you save more money

China

No matter their age and how you're related to them, you uncle in English, is simply your uncle In Chinese, it is much more complex--whether he’s related by marriage or birth, if it’s your father’s brother, whether he’s older or younger By contantly encoding information as such, it forces one to think of many things, such as time, differently The complexity of the Chinese language in relation to econiomics has proven "futureless languages" correlate with how much money one saves

china

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FUTURED AND FUTURELESS LANGUAGES

asia

NORTH AMERICA

EUROPe

africa

SOUTH AMERICA

OCEANIA

Futured Languages

Futureless Languages

schadenfreude

Although there is no English equivalent for the German word schadenfreude, which describes feeling joy at other people’s misfortunes, Pullum explains that we are still able to understand the concept even if we do not have a name for it (Pullum). Even if we do not have a specific word, we are able to combine words to illustrate the meaning of schadenfreude and understand the feeling.

Germany

Privacy in italian language

In Language Matters, Napoli & Lee-Schoenfeld explain that although the Italian language lacks a word for privacy, Italians clearly understand the concept of privacy and exhibit behaviors which reveal that, such as closing the door when using the restroom and avoiding asking personal questions of people they are not familiar with. This example is used to support the authors’ position that language does not determine thought because even without a term for the concept, people are able to comprehend it (Napoli & Lee-Schoenfeld).

italy

yesterday or tomorrow?

In the 5 Minute Linguist, Pullum explains the Hindi word “kal” means either yesterday or tomorrow depending on the context of the sentence. He argues that this does not give Hindi speakers a different understanding of time because English speakers who have separate words for yesterday and tomorrow are still able to understand the concept of the word kal (Pullum).

india

language and thought

While some may argue language and thought are not equivalent—for example, speaking without thinking—language does in fact have an effect on our thoughts and behaviors to some extent. Although language and thought cannot be one and the same, nor are they even necessarily dependent on each other (Napoli & Lee-Schoenfeld, 2010), it is possible for aspects of languages—vocabulary, syntactic characteristics, and translation—to influence thought. What do you think?

you

Works Cited

Chen, K. (2012, June). Could your language affect your ability to save money? [Video]. TED Global.https://www.ted.com/talks/keith_chen_could_your_language_affect_your_ability_to_save_money Giang, V. (2018). How language shapes our perception of reality. Fast Company. Haviland, J. (1998). Guugu yimithirr cardinal directions. Journal of Linguistic Anthropology, 26(1), 25-47. Myrick, C., & Wolfram, W. (2019). The five-minute linguist: Bite-sized essays on language and languages. Equinox Publishing.Napoli, D. J., & Lee-Schoenfeld, V. (2010). Language matters: A guide to everyday questions about language. Oxford University Press. TEDxUniversityofMacedonia. (2017, February 6). Gravity of language on thoughts Panos Athanasopoulos [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/embed/W_NR4-hcUNM UCTVSeminars. (2014, February 27). How the languages we speak shape the ways we think [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VHulvUwgFWo Smithsonian Channel. (2012, April 30). A language without numbers? [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDM8G5tuHF8

According to Panos Athanasopoulos in “Gravity of Language on Thoughts,” people who use futureless languages are more likely to save for the future and use contraception and less likely to smoke or be overweight. Futureless languages do not make a distinction between present and future, which makes people think about the present and future in the same way. In futured languages speakers use different words depending on if an event is happening in the present or in the future, which results in the future feeling further away and disconnected from the present.

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