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
83
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.
【T7】
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
masculine
解析
演讲者说德国人倾向于使用“漂亮的”“优雅的”和表达阴柔女子气质的词,而西班牙人则倾向于使用表达阳刚气质的(masculine words) 词。故填入masculine。
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/IBSD777K
0
专业英语四级
相关试题推荐
Doctorsalreadyknowthatpeoplewhosmokecandamagetheirhearing.ThelateststudyinthejournalTobaccoControl,【C1】_______
About3billionpeoplelivewithin100miles(160km)ofthesea,anumberthatcoulddoubleinthenextdecadeashumansflockt
About3billionpeoplelivewithin100miles(160km)ofthesea,anumberthatcoulddoubleinthenextdecadeashumansflockt
Everyoneknowsthatthefirstruleofdrivingisnevertakingyoureyesofftheroad.Teendrivers【C1】________beingcareful,bu
Itiscommonknowledgethathealthyfoodssuchasfruitsandvegetablescontaincertainnutrientsthatpromotegoodhealth—namel
[A]Thisinterpretationwaschallengedinarecentpaper.Afterreviewingtheresearchliterature,theauthorsconcludedthat
[A]Ifsuchanegativebiasagainstcreativityispresentintimesofuncertainty,itmightexplainwhysomanynotableinnovat
Inspiring,chicandeffortlesslyelegant—that’swhatdesignersatLondonFashionWeekhailedKateMiddleton’sstyle,ashersart
Thereneversomanyforeignguestscometoourcityastoday,solearningEnglishisimportant.
InstallationsofsolarpowerintheUKarelikelytotoprecordsthisyear,andcouldoffsetsomeoftheexpensivedependenceon
随机试题
水体景观分为_______。
小李收集了2019年某校各学院学生数情况数据,并使用Excel2010软件进行数据处理,如下图所示。上述操作后,小李发现区域E5:E14计算结果不符合要求。若要正确计算“占全校总人数比例(%)”列的数据,可先修改E4单元格中的公式,再进行自动填充。
患者,男性,65岁。既往有高血压心脏病史,因上消化道大出血入院,经输血输液后,测中心静脉压22cmH2O,血压70/50mmHg。患者经治疗后血压上升仍不明显,予以漂浮导管检查,在置管前要考虑患者是否有禁忌证,下列是置管相对禁忌证的有:
《刑法》第13条规定:一切危害国家主权、领土完整和安全,分裂国家、颠覆人民民主专政的政权和推翻社会主义制度,破坏社会秩序和经济秩序,侵犯国有财产或者劳动群众集体所有的财产,侵犯公民私人所有的财产,侵犯公民的人身权利、民主权利和其他权利,以及其他危害社会的行
某变电所中的高压母线选用铝镁合金管型母线,导体的工作温度是90℃,短路电流为18kA,短路的等效持续时间0.5s,铝镁合金热稳定系数79,请校验热稳定的最小截面接近下列哪项数值?
某设备采购合同中约定,甲公司向乙公司购买5台设备。合同履行过程中,甲通知乙公司将合同项下的2台设备转让给丙公司。但乙公司一直未予交付,确定当事人的违约责任时,()是正确的。
预算过繁、()、效能低下可能造成预算控制失效。
我国要建立的健全的社会保障制度内容很广泛,它包括()。
A、以为你早来了B、觉得你应该来C、等了你很久了D、只等了一会儿C“以为”后面是错误的信息,“半天”表示时间长,“等了半天”就是等了很长时间,所以选择C。
Mostpeoplehavenoideaofthehardworkandworrythatgointothecollectingofthosefascinatingbirdsandanimalsthatthey
最新回复
(
0
)