Boroditsky (2001)
Does language shape thought?
Mandarin and English speakers'
conceptions of time
Darya Lyoshina
Background to the
study
The focus of Lera Boroditsky's (2001) study is how the
language we speak affects how we think, which relates to
linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity. English and
Mandarin languages 'talk' differently about time.For
example:
English speakers think of time as past', 'present and 'future',
showing a direction that time moves in. They think of time
as moving along a line;Boroditsky concludes that in English,
time is viewed horizontally
Mandarin speakers talk about time as 'up' and 'down'. Early
events are 'up' and later events are 'down'. Mandarin
Chinese talks about time vertically.
Aims of the study
• The focus is on whether language affects how
someone thinks about the world. The main aim was to
see if setting someone up to think about things
'vertically will mean that Mandarin speakers are
quicker than native English speakers when answering
'true' or 'false' about time issues or vice versa.
Procedure
• Participants included 26
speakers with English as
their first language and 20
native Mandarin speakers.
• Boroditsky uses the idea
of priming in the study.
• Priming: being exposed to
a certain stimulus will
influence the way you
respond to a different
stimulus later.
Horizontal priming
• 'Horizontal' priming - for example,
in the picture, we can see a black
worm and a white worm presented
horizontally with the black worm 'in
front'. This was to set up horizontal
thinking.
Vertical priming
• 'Vertical' priming - for example, in
the picture, we can see a white and
a black ball presented with the
black ball above the white one.
This was to set up vertical thinking.
Procedure
• For each slide, they were asked whether the
statement was true or false. Participants
were also shown slides with a 'time'
statement and asked if they were true or
false, such as 'March comes before April. All
the statements asked about time were true.
There were also other slides, such as false
statements about months/time, to mask the
purpose of the study.
• The participant had to answer 'true' or 'false'
as quickly as possible. The time taken to
answer true or false was measured. The
order of the slides was randomised
Results
• Native English speakers were quicker to
answer ' time' questions after horizontal
primes (2128 milliseconds) rather than
vertical primes (2300 milliseconds).
• There was no difference in the time it took
Mandarin speakers to answer time
questions. They took 2422 milliseconds after
horizontal primes and 2428 milliseconds
after vertical primes.
• There were differences regarding whether
the time question used 'before' or 'after' or
'earlier or later', the latter being more time-
related. Mandarin speakers answered
'earlier/later' time questions faster after
vertical primes (2347 milliseconds) than
after horizontal primes (2503 milliseconds).
Conclusions
English speakers were Native Mandarin speakers The findings were true for
faster to answer were faster to answer Mandarin speakers even
statements about time statements about time when they were tested in
after being horizontally (only if a question used English, which suggests
primed.showing language more time-related that thought is affected by
affects thought as English wording such as 'earlier' native language even if
speakers use a horizontal and 'later', not 'before' or someone is thinking in a
view of time. 'after') after vertical different language.
priming. showing that
language affects thought
because Mandarin
speakers have a vertical
view of time.
Strengths and weaknesses of the study:
Weakness: Strength:
❖ Boroditsky only studied time and ❖ Variables are controlled. For
did not consider other concepts, example, randomising the order
which could be considered of the presentation of the slides.
reductionist. So we can consider
it like weakness.
❖ Findings do not consider the
whole picture, limiting the
conclusions.
❖ The study does not represent
real-life thinking - our thoughts
are not usually primed in order
for us to answer questions. So,
the study lacks validity.
THANKS FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
