How Much Does Language Shape Thought?

Question 1

What is the relationship between language and thought?

Answer 1

Language is a reflection of thought
Language is used to communicate thought.

Question 2

What is the viewpoint of Chomsky’s Universality of Thought?

Answer 2

Language is a mirror of the mind in a deep and significant sense

Question 3

The causal chain under Chomsky’s Universality of Thought view

Answer 3

Senses drives -> Conceptual categories are communicated by -> Linguistic categories

Thus, the concepts that we choose to label with words of English have no bearing on the kinds of concepts (ideas) that we can entertain about the world or build to represent the world

Question 4

What is the viewpoint of Linguistic Relativity?

Answer 4

The labels we choose actually shape the concepts we have

Language shapes the way we think, and determines what we can think about

Question 5

How is the causal chain of Linguistic Relativity by Whorf?

Answer 5

Senses <- Conceptual Categories <- Linguistic categories

The labels we choose actually shape the concepts we have

Thus, concepts that are labelled by the same thing could merge together, where you no longer think of them as two different concepts

Unlabelled concepts can fade from importance or disappear completely

Labels might also make subtly different concepts more distinct

In other words, language would radically alter how we conceive of and perceive the world

Question 6

How can we know if language shapes thought (linguistic diversity)?

Answer 6

We look at experiments expressing the difference in how languages label events and space

Question 7

What are motion events made up of?

Answer 7

Motion events have a path and a manner

Question 8

What is the path of motion events?

Answer 8

Where the person is going
Ex. ascend, descend, enter, exit

Question 9

What is the manner of motion events?

Answer 9

How the path is being accomplished
Ex. run, walk, carry

Question 10

How do languages differ when talking about events?

Answer 10

Languages differ in what they tend to talk about (like manner or path)

English is a manner language. So we focus on the manner of the event, and the path is not central

Greek is a path language, focusing on the path and not the manner.

Question 11

The role of language in event perception Study

Answer 11

Procedures:
Eyetrack English and Greek speakers as they describe simple motion events.
Whether they looked at the snowman or the man
The motion event is a man skating (manner) towards a snowman (path endpoint region).

Findings:
78% of English speakers used manner verbs to describe the motion event
36% of Greek speakers used manner verbs to describe the motion event
English speakers look at the manner first, and then they will project motion to the path endpoint
Greek speakers first project the motion to the path endpoint, then they look at the manner of motion.

Question 12

The role of language in event perception Study but just looking and not speaking

Answer 12

Procedures:
A different group of English and Greek speakers was asked just to study the events.

Findings:
English and Greek Speakers tend to first go to the path endpoint, then to the manner

Question 13

Conclusion on Language and Thought in relation to events

Answer 13

When we use language, it changes what we attend to and what we think about in the moment, but it doesn’t change our mental capacity.
Language doesn’t change the categories that we possess

Question 14

What is Thinking for Speaking?

Answer 14

The activity of thinking takes on a particular quality when it is employed in the activity of speaking

When we use language, it changes what we attend to and what we think about in the moment.

Question 15

What are egocentric spatial terms?

Answer 15

Represents the location of objects in space relative to the body axes of the self

Ex, Left and right

Question 16

What are allocentric spatial terms?

Answer 16

Encodes information about the location of one object or its parts with respect to other objects (or landmark).

Ex. North and South

Question 17

Background on Tzeltal Tribe

Answer 17

Allocentric-only language
They lived on the side of a hill/mountain so used the mountain/hill as a reference point
So they used, uphill = south, downhill=north, traverse = earth/west

Question 18

What is the linguistic relativity claim about the Tzeltal tribe?

Answer 18

A speaker of allocentric language cannot remember arrays of objects in egocentric spatial terms
Speakers of Tzeltal cannot represent space egocentrically

Question 19

Study of Tzeltal Tribe

Answer 19

Procedures:
Sit subjects in front of a table and have them memorize items on table 1.
Then have them rotate to Table 2 behind them and tell them to recreate the same as Table 1.
So the allocentric tendency would have the frog on the north side.
The egocentric tendency would place the frog on the right side.

Prediction:
Tzeltal would only do the task allocentrically

Findings:
Dutch speakers prefer to solve the problem egocentrically
Tzeltal speakers prefer to solve the problem allocentrically

Question 20

What is the caveat of the Tzeltal tribe study?

Answer 20

The spatial environment of the test was different for the two groups being studied.
The Dutch speakers were tested indoors in a small test room with few landmarks they could use.
Tzeltal was tested outdoors in the village with many landmarks.

Question 21

Gleitman Study Comparing Three Spatial Environments with Penn Undergrads

Answer 21

Procedures:
One condition has the blinds down in a room with few landmarks, while doing the test
Another condition has the blinds up in a room with many landmarks while doing the test
Third condition was outside with many landmarks while doing the test

Findings:
In the first condition, with blinds down, students solved the problem egocentrically
In the second condition, with blinds up, it was split on whether they solved it egocentrically or allocentrically
In the third condition, being outdoors was split on whether they solved it egocentrically or allocentrically

Later experiments demonstrated that in fact, Tzeltal speakers can think about space either allocentrically or egocentrically, depending on context