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24th July 2010

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Does Language Influence Culture? →

Pretty interesting article in the WSJ today. Basically says that language profoundly influences how we see the world. Some examples:

  • Russian speakers who have more words for light and dark blues are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue.
  • An aboriginal community in Australia doesn’t use terms like “left” and “right”, and instead uses north, south, east and west for directions. As a result they have greater spatial orientation.
  • People who speak languages that drop the agent of causality, for example “the vase broke itself” versus “John broke the vase,” don’t often associate blame for events.
  • One group who uses the words “few” and “many” in favor of actual number words has difficulty keeping track of exact quantities.
  • English speakers see time on a horizontal plane, with the best years ahead and the past behind us. Whereas Mandarin speakers see new events emerging like a spring of water, with the past above and the future below.

Here’s a bit more on the research. Pretty interesting! 

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  10. thunkapotamus reblogged this from travelerofthetimestreams and added:
    straight up fascinating! meestarman:gaviota:capucha:lifeisacupcake:dalasverdugo:dihard: Pretty interesting article in...
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  12. travelerofthetimestreams reblogged this from meestarman and added:
    Very interesting.
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    i can’t imagine the future below us. that’s like we’re falling and death is when we hit the ground..
  17. inhishands reblogged this from gaviota and added:
    Very interesting!
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    Not to sound like a dick or anything (you know when I say that it probably means I will be [sound like] a dick), but...
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