Looking Glass: How Culture Affects The Perception Of Language

Most questions of whether and how language shapes thought start with the simple observation that languages differ from one another. And a lot! Just look at the way people talk, they might say. Certainly, speakers of different languages must attend to strikingly different aspects of the world just so they can use their language properly.

Linguistic stereotypes are an existent form of discrimination. Since, languages are criticized and mocked due to the connection between language and cultural character. Thus, language is significantly related to the identity of the speakers. In addition, languages are vulnerable to criticism due to differences in cultural behavior.

Linguist Karla Holloway type of people think that black are dum. They don't know anything. I think they are also like us so we have to treat them with a same respect we treat others. Everyone should fight for theirs rights like black women did in this book. We should be proud of those type of people and also support them if you can. If you give a power to right person can make so many good changes in our society and also in our life. Black women truth doesn't matter in 1970’s. Hip-hop has many other things then just dance. They also have differents things like styles etc. Moore writes: I’m a Hip-Hop cheerleader

Rosenthal and Jacobson’s classic experiment demonstrates the power of labels. In the experiment, the team arbitrarily labeled a few first graders as ‘bloomers.’ This designation was only made known to the teachers. In the following year, those students outperformed their peers by 10-15 IQ points. The teachers’ increased expectations and treatment may have facilitated their growth. Even language can fundamentally affect our perception of the world. In an interesting study, German and Spanish speakers were asked to describe the same bridge. The German speakers described the bridge as ‘beautiful’ or ‘elegant’, and the Spanish speakers described it as ‘strong’ or ‘sturdy.’ In German, bridge is a feminine word while in Spanish it is a masculine word. Symbols have a similar influence on our behavior. The American flag often evokes thoughts of freedom, equality, and justice. When students were sat in front of an American flag as opposed to a blank wall, they reported feeling more tolerant of other races and

The main reason that Boroditsky’s argument that language shapes our minds is valid is that the research she did with her teams covers a wide variety of aspects on this topic while still keeping her article cohesive. The first research Boroditsky introduces to her audience is the research on the Kuuk Thaayorre, which is an

In his article "Does Your Language Shape How You Think?" the author Guy Deutscher discusses how the acquisition of one's mother tongue shapes one's view of the world. The article was published in The New York Times in August 2010. The author's major paradigm is that every language one learns influences one's mind and feelings in a different way. Deutscher explains that depending on one's mother tongue, objects can be considered masculine or feminine, which results in the speaker feeling differently about them. The author believes that different languages do indeed make one speak about space in different ways as well; although he claims people do not have entirely different views of it. Deutscher then explains that experiments have shown that

Famous American anthropologist and social theorist Clyde Kluckholm , claims in one of his publication that “Every language is also a special way of looking at the world and interpreting experience concealed in the structure of language are a whole set of unconscious assumptions about the world and the life in it”(Writing logically, Thinking critically 7th edition P 35). Based on this theory, we can learn more

Linguistic relativity is the notion that language can affect our thought processes, and is often referred to as the ‘Sapir-Whorf hypothesis’, after the two linguists who brought the idea into the spotlight. Whorf writes how “Language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual’s mental activity” (1956:212), and I will explain how it is able to do so. In this essay I will argue that certain ways of mental categorization, spatial cognition and reality interpretation, based on the characteristics of our specific variety of language, influence our perception of the world. I will discuss how languages divide up nature differently, and

Although there is no official language in the United States, the English language is the most widely spoken. Language helps to shape our identities, define and limit our expectations of the world around us and who we are. You might ask yourself, how does our language shape our identities and influence our perceptions of the world? Through language, we are able to make meaning, understand, and define ourselves. We are able to communicate what we feel, our ideas, our hopes, and our dreams with others who can respond to our feelings and thoughts. However, our choice of words cannot always capture what we are feeling to the full extent.

In many circles of the world, various groups of people distinguish themselves from one another through religion, language, culture, and sometimes gender. People also develop stereotypes about a particular group of people in order to identify them. However, most of the time, these stereotypes hold true for only some members of a group. Sometimes, these stereotypes are just plain misconceptions that do not even apply to the group it claims to. Stereotypes are placed on people because it is a way to easily identify what type of person or ethnicity an individual is. At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into

In the article “Lost in Translation”, the author, Lera Boroditsky, maintains as her thesis that the languages we speak not only reflect or express our thoughts, but also shape the very thoughts we wish to express. Boroditsky begins the main section of her essay with the history of the issue of whether or not languages shape the way speakers think. Charlemagne was the first to think that languages do in fact shape the mindset of speaker, but Noam Chomsky rebutted this idea with his thought that languages do not differ much from each other, thus in turn proposing that linguistic differences do not cause a difference in thinking. Now with scientists

No matter where you are in the world, you are taught about language. Whether it’s in your home learning your language or in school trying to learn a foreign language. Although while learning language the notion is never really thought about or brought up that the language and way we speak can influence the way we think and interact. Phycologist and neuroscientist alike have spent years, with multiple different tests to see if there is a connection between the various languages that are spoken and the way people not only think but also how they go about their daily lives. She writes to not only her colleagues and neuroscientists but also to anyone in the general public that is genuinely interested in the connection between

There has been a long debate on whether language has an impact on cultures, and with much research from linguistic specialist, and professors the debate has been solved to say that, yes, in fact that language has an impact on cultures. In an article called, “Does Language influence culture?” Johnathan Becher makes a statement about how differences in each language seems to impact the behaviors, and how everyone interprets their surroundings. It is amazing how simple language comes off to be, and yet it can be so advanced. It impacts each culture differently; Johnathan Becher said that the way Russians express colors is more advanced than most others. They can express the difference between light blues, and dark blues in a very descriptive way. The extensive details can be results of each culture being

Research by Lera Boroditsky (2001) posed many interesting questions regarding linguistic diversity and the resultant interplay between language and thought: whether linguistic diversity stimulates different ways of thinking, whether learning new languages changes the way one thinks, whether bilingual and multilingual people think differently when speaking different languages. Clark (2003) maintains that although language does not indicate a complete map of consciousness or thought, it is at least a “representational map” that varies across languages.

Originally, linguistics was my intended major. Recently, I decided to switch my major to anthropology, and more specifically, the field of linguistic anthropology. For the linguistics major, one of my requirements for transferring to a university was to take a language and culture class. Several of the first lectures focused on the history of linguistics and anthropology. I was introduced to the idea that language, thought, and culture all influence each other. This meant that studying language, when divorced from the concept of culture, creates a myopic view of linguistics. It had never occurred to me that linguistic does not occur in a vacuum and needs to be examined alongside the culture it is associated with. Seeds of change were then sown in my mind. As the class progressed, I found myself growing more interested in the subject as a whole, and so anthropology became my major.