首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
外语
How Language Shapes the Way We Think Languages differ from one another. The differences influence the way we think. Lang
How Language Shapes the Way We Think Languages differ from one another. The differences influence the way we think. Lang
admin
2023-01-28
17
问题
How Language Shapes the Way We Think
Languages differ from one another. The differences influence the way we think.
Languages differ in how they separate the【T1】________spectrum
. example
— in English, there is one word for blue
— in Russian, there are two words: goluboy and siniy
. influence
— Russian speakers are faster to【T2】________blues
— when colors shift slowly from light to dark blue
Russian speakers consider it as【T3】________
English speakers ignore the shift【T4】________varies across languages
. example
—【T5】________is masculine in German but feminine in Spanish
. influence
— when asked to describe【T6】________
German speakers tend to say "beautiful" or "elegant"
Spanish speakers tend to use【T7】________words
Languages differ in how they describe events
. example
— English: "He broke the vase" English speakers mind "who did it"
— Spanish: "【T8】________"
Spanish speakers mind【T9】________
. influence
— implications for eyewitness testimony,【T10】________
— language guides our reasoning about events.
【T3】
How Language Shapes the Way We Think
Good morning, everyone. In today’s lecture, we will talk about how languages differ from one another, and more importantly, how these differences influence the way we think. 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. Some languages have different sounds, they have different vocabularies, and they also have different structures. That begs the question: Does the language we speak shape the way we think? Recently, we’ve started doing research, and now we have actual scientific data to weigh in on this question.
So, first, color. Languages 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." For example, in English, there’s a word for blue, 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, we find 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, "Oh, something has categorically changed." What about English speakers, for example? Well, they don’t make this categorical distinction, they don’t give that surprise, because nothing is categorically changing.
Now let’s move to our second part—gender. 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? Actually, it turns out that’s the case. If you ask German and Spanish speakers to, say, describe a bridge—"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.
Our third part is about events. That is, languages differ in how they describe events. In English, it’s fine to say, "He broke the vase." But in a language like Spanish, you might be more likely to say, "The vase broke," or, "The vase broke itself."
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 tend 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 for eyewitness testimony. It also has implications for blame and punishment. So if you take English speakers and I just show someone breaking a vase, and I say, "He broke the vase," as opposed to "The vase broke," you will blame someone more. The language guides our reasoning about events.
To sum up today, we have talked about three ways that our minds are influenced by the languages we speak. Next time, I would talk about my working experience with people using different languages.
选项
答案
a categorical change
解析
演讲者说到俄罗斯人看到浅蓝色在变成深蓝色时的反应:觉得事物在分类上已发生了改变(something has categorically changed)。也就是说事物的分类不一样了。题目的as提示要填入名词,对something has categorically changed稍加提炼,可填入a categorical change。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/9BSD777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Doctorsalreadyknowthatpeoplewhosmokecandamagetheirhearing.ThelateststudyinthejournalTobaccoControl,【C1】_______
About3billionpeoplelivewithin100miles(160km)ofthesea,anumberthatcoulddoubleinthenextdecadeashumansflockt
IsStanfordstillauniversity?TheWallStreetJournalrecentlyreportedthatmorethanadozenstudentshaveleftschooltowo
Peopleusedtothinkthatlearningtwolanguagescreatedconfusioninthemind.Far【C1】________itwasthought,togetoneright
Peopleusedtothinkthatlearningtwolanguagescreatedconfusioninthemind.Far【C1】________itwasthought,togetoneright
Mostworthwhilecareersrequiresomekindofspecializedtraining.Ideally,therefore,thechoiceofan【C1】________shouldbemad
阅读下列案例内容,回答并计算问题1至问题4,将解答填入答题纸的对应栏内。【说明】A公司新接到一个IDC运营商B的服务需求,服务对象包括数十台的网络设备和存储设备,以及一个机房的空调和柴发装置。但A公司的服务能力主要在IT设备领域,基础设施服务没有积累。
AllShakerfurnitureimplies________humanismindesign:theShakersmadeobjectsthatlooklikeobjects,followinganonhumanla
AsMarygrewolder,shebegantorecognizehermother’sstrictdiscipline.
A、Somewitnessesfailedtoappearincourt.B、Thecasecauseddebateamongthepublic.C、Theaccusedwasfoundguiltyofstealin
随机试题
2013年4月,陈明设立A有限责任公司(简称“A公司”),从事绿色食品开发,注册资本为200,万元。A公司成立半年后,为增加产品开发力度,陈明拟新增资本100万元,并为此分别与张巡、李贝洽谈,该二人均有意愿认缴全部新增资本,加入陈明的公司。陈明遂先后与张巡
间接碘量法的标准滴定溶液是硫代硫酸钠溶液。
简述灰色市场活动的弊端。
()性包含顽强斗争的品质。
甲有父亲、母亲、配偶(机关干部)、儿子(工程师)、女儿(小学音乐教师)各一人。甲去世,留有遗产,房屋6间、荷款5000元、古字画10件和钢琴一架。甲生前自书遗嘱指定:房产归妻子和儿女继承,古字画赠给文物部门。对存款和钢琴遗嘱未作处理。现甲的女儿提出要将钢琴
关于特发性血小板减少性紫癜(ITP)的概念,描述错误的是()
业主是()。
人类的四大烦恼,不但“生”“老”“死”没人躲过,就是“病”也无法根除,人类自有“药”的发明,“药”与“病”就“道高一尺,魔高一丈”。虽然在“药”不太灵的时候,行气、导引、祝由(古代的精神疗法)会重新产生吸引力(如对外丹术衰落后的内丹术和出于绝望的癌症病人)
简述泰勒原理。
社会经济权是指公民享有的经济生活和物质利益方面的权利,是公民实现其他权利的物质基础。主要包括
最新回复
(
0
)