Language

 and  Culture

Chapter  11
 Language  and  thought
How  are  language,  thought,  and  culture  related?
Does  language  influence  thought?
• Linguistic  relativity:  the  language  one  speaks  
affects  how  s/he  perceives  the  world
• Linguistic  determinism:  language  determines  
thought;  speakers  can  think  of  things  only  in  
the  way  their  language  expresses  them
 Early  work
• Franz  Boas  (1858-­‐1942)
• Edward  Sapir  (1884-­‐1939)
• Benjamin  Whorf  (1897-­‐1941)
• Boas:  language  is  used  to  classify  our  experience
– Differences  in  how  languages  classify  the  world  
(counting  systems,  tense,  spatial  relationships)  mean  
people  will  classify  the  world  differently  based  on  the  
language  they  speak.
• Sapir  (Boas’  student)
– Linguistic  classification  is  the  WAY  in  which  people  
think
• Thought  is  done  in  a  particular  language
– Language  shapes  thoughts  and  experiences
– Different  ways  of  actually  thinking
• Whorf
– Studied  Native  American  languages  (e.g.,  Hopi)
– Differences  in  tense  =  differences  in  conception  of  
time
• Western  Ls:
– Grammatical  past,  present,  future
• Hopi:
– Time  expressed  adverbially
– Days  =  repeated  appearances  of  same  cycle
– Verbs:  manfested/unmanifest
• Sapir-­‐Whorf  hypothesis
– “users  of  markedly  different  grammars  are  
pointed  by  their  grammars  toward  different  types  
of  observations  and  different  evaluations  of  
externally  similar  acts  of  observation,  and  hence  
are  not  equivalent  as  observers  but  must  arrive  at  
somewhat  different  views  of  the  world.”
 Problems  with  Whorf’s  research
• Was  he  projecting  ideas  about  culture  from  
his  understanding  of  the  grammar?
• Hopi  has  other  ways  of  locating  events  in  time
• Critiques  of  his  analysis  of  the  Hopi  linguistic  
system
 Recent  relativity  studies
• Grammatical  gender
• Color
• Space
 Grammatical  gender:  language  &  
thought
• Boroditsky et  al.  (2002)
– 24  object  names  (in  English)  with  opposite  gender  
in  German  and  Spanish
– Native  speakers  of  each  language  write  down  first  
3  adjectives  that  came  to  mind  for  each  object
– Naïve  English  speakers  rated  the  adjectives  as  
feminine  (+1)/masculine  (-­‐1)
Key  -­‐ German Key  -­‐ Spanish
• Hard • Tiny
• Heavy • Intricate
• Jagged • Golden
• Metal • Lovely
• Serrated • Shiny
• Useful • Little
Bridge  – German Bridge  -­‐ Spanish
• Beautiful • Big  
• Elegant • Dangerous
• Fragile • Long
• Peaceful • Strong
• Pretty   • Sturdy
• Slender • Towering
 Color  terms
• Test  non-­‐linguistic  reasoning
• Basic  terms  
• Lenneberg &  Roberts  (1956)
– Sort  color  chips  ranging  from  orange  to  yellow
• English  speakers  (2  terms):  consistent  sorting
• Zuni  speakers  (1  term):  inconsistent
• Von  Wattenwyl &  Zollinger (1978)
– Sort  blue  – green  chips
• Q’ueqchi (1  term):  consistent  sorting
• Berlin  and  Kay  (1969)
– 329  color  chips
• For  each  basic  word,  circle  the  chips  that  could  be  called  by  it
• For  each  word,  select  the  most  prototypical  example  of  it
– Foci  were  similar  across  languages
– Hierarchy  of  color  terms
• Black  &  white  >  red  >green/yellow>blue>brown>purple/pink/orange/gray
– Color  distinctions  universal,  spectrum  divided  up  in  different  but  predictable  ways
 Language  &  thought:  Space
• Relative  terms  (left,  right)  vs.  absolute  terms  
(north,  south)
• Levinson  &  Brown  (1996)
– English  and  Tzeltal (Mayan)  speakers
 Space
• Relative  terms  (left,  right)  vs.  absolute  terms  
(north,  south)
• Levinson  &  Brown  (1996)
– English  and  Tzeltal (Mayan)  speakers
RIGHT NORTH

LEFT SOUTH
 Space
• Relative  terms  (left,  right)  vs.  absolute  terms  
(north,  south)
• Levinson  &  Brown  (1996)
– English  and  Tzeltal (Mayan)  speakers
RIGHT NORTH

LEFT SOUTH
Determinism?
• Dan  Everett  &  the  Piraha
• [Link]
• Movie:  The  Grammar  of  Happiness
• [Link]
Gordon  (2004)  and  Everett  (2005)
• Piraha (Brazil):  don’t  have  cardinal  #s and  appear  to  be  
unable  to  learn  cardinal  numbers  (i.e.,  to  learn  to  
count)
• BUT…Training  methods  questioned  &  lots  of  evidence  
that  people  can  learn  new  concepts  and  classification
• If  determinism  is  true,  should  be  able  to  
modify  attitudes  by  changing  language.  
– Does  this  occur?
• Slobin (1996):  thinking  and  speaking
– To  use  a  particular  language,  must  take  note  of  
different  aspects  of  world;  the  things  we  need  to  
think  about  are  influenced  by  the  language  we  
speak
 Linguistic  anthropology
• The  study  of  how  language  interacts  with  &  
shapes  social  structure  &  culture
• Speakers  use  language  to  represent  their  
natural  &  social  worlds
– Learn  about  culture  thru  language
 Example:  Kinship  terms
• Terminology  used  to  categorize  people
• English:  mother,  father,  sister,  brother,  others?
• Seneca:  
– same  terms  for  mom  and  mom’s  sister;  dad  and  
dad’s  brother
– same  terms  for  older  sisters  and  older  female  
cousins  (and  for  male,  and  for  younger)
 Communicative  competence
[Link]
• Culturally  determined… 76166674/linguist-­‐did-­‐pioneering-­‐
work-­‐on-­‐discourse-­‐across-­‐cultural-­‐
– Politeness boundaries

– Speaker  roles
• Who  we’re  talking  to,  social  roles
– Turn-­‐taking
• Amount  of  time  expected  in  conversation
 A  closer  look:  politeness
• Indirectness
– Direct:  “close  the  window”
– Indirect:  “could  you  close  the  window?”  or  even  
“it’s  getting  cold  in  here”
• I.e.,  using  a  question  or  statement  to  issue  a  
command/make  a  request
• Cultural  diffs:  In  ASL,  directness  is  not  rude  
but  breaking  eye  contact  is
 politeness
• Honorifics
– Forms  used  to  indicate  social  relationships
• T/V  distinctions
– Simple  system  of  honorifics
– 2nd person  pronouns  depend  on  social  distance  or  
intimacy
• French?
• German?
• Spanish?
• English?
– Thee/thou  (T  – informal)  vs.  ye/you  (V  – formal)