How Language Shapes Thought | Lera Boroditsky

Do the languages we speak shape the way we think? For example, how do we think about time? The word "time" is the most frequent noun in the English language. Time is ubiquitous yet ephemeral. It forms the very fabric of our experience, and yet it is unperceivable: we cannot see, touch, or smell time. How do our minds create this fundamental aspect of experience? Do patterns in language and culture influence how we think about time?
Do languages merely express thoughts, or do the structures in languages (without our knowledge or consent) shape the very thoughts we wish to express? Can learning new ways to talk change how you think? Is there intrinsic value in human linguistic diversity? Join us as Stanford cognitive scientist Lera Boroditsky re-invigorates this long standing debate with data from experiments done around the world, from China, to Indonesia, Israel, and Aboriginal Australia.

"How Language Shapes Thought" was given on October 26, 02010 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:

The Long Now Foundation is a non-profit dedicated to fostering long-term thinking and responsibility. Our projects include a 10,000 Year Clock, endangered language preservation, thousand year+ data storage, and Long Bets, an arena for accountable predictions.

[Rich-pyci]

I find Lera's presentations captivating.

[mihaelayordanova]

I would very much appreciate if Lera Boroditsky makes a similar presentation bringing into perspective the Slavonic languages and how native speakers of these languages differ in their perceptions of the world from native English speakers, or bilingual speakers for that matter.

[gxstevexgclix]

A very Informative presentation. I have gained new thoughts to consider when talking w/ family, friends, and colleagues who have a different native languages.

[lora]

This was truly fascinating, thank you.

I'm still processing, but wanted to at least leave a comment of appreciation for this presentation. Lera is quite captivating, I look forward to learning more.

[HellCatLeMaudit]

I was discussing with a non-mathematical friend the idea from physics that an electron is a particle moving forward in time while the anti-electron is the same particle but it is moving backwards in time. I was referring to the Feynman-Wheeler Absorber theory and as someone with mathematical training it was quite easy for me to visualize what this means. It's just negative time.

However, my friend cannot understand what it means for something to travel backwards in time! I had to say things like, we are moving forward in time but if an electron is moving from yesterday to today and we encounter it we would see it as having positive charge. It looks like a different particle to us but it's just the same particle.

She knows the idea of time travel from the movies but she cannot comprehend how the electron can actually travel the time line in the reverse direction. For her, time travel means you are in 2023 and the next moment you are in 1511---just like in the movies. She cannot comprehend that to travel backwards in time means you have to travel through 2022, 2021, 2020, etc. ..., all the way to 1511 and that you are bound to meet someone or something moving forward in time in the opposite direction.

The point I am making is that mathematics is also a language and having mastery of this language allows us to understand concepts that would be alien to us if we did not have mastery of this language.

[aMulliganStew]

"The best way to not be unhappy is to not have a word for it." -- Douglas Adams

[dalegamburg]

The word for this linguist is delightful.

[GPS]

Wow 👌
She's very bright 🌞 ✨️

She reminds me of a very young Noam Chomsky.

[frankkneeland]

On the surface this topic seems almost silly. As someone that has had people's lives, which I cared about ruined over their definitions of words, which I took for granted--it becomes far more serious. This was the best Youtube video I've seen in a year. Other than Gangam Style:)

[estudiantes]

thank you Lera, I learned a lot of things!

[TheRealJamesWu]

As a mandarin speaker watching this, as 44:23, i went "of course! the past has to be on top!" lol

[richardgardner]

If the distinction is culturally important, the language will reflect this important distinction. Ethno-linguists have demonstrated this connection between thought (cognition) and language. Language is a continuum of typification, it reflects how the speakers of a language cut up and classify the world around them, their known world.

[hyunsoolee]

Wonderful presentation!!! Language is so interesting ❤

[KG-ifoc]

Environment must play a big part. The Kuuk T. must live in a place that NEVER gets dense fog! My sister has come to the conclusion that i have a magnet in the tip of my nose, but i become hopelessly lost in dense fog at night. Also in whiteouts during skiing. So i know i just have a subconscious sundial keeping track of light & shadow directionallity. So now that ive heard your talk, i developed this theory that, since english developed in britain, which probably has frequent fog, it would be natural to develop a language of relative directions vs absolute. Maybe someone might find it interesting to study the effects of climate on language?

[stuartdryer]

She totally convinced me, and I was very skeptical of that idea before I watched the video (based on stuff I read circa 1990). And now that I reflect, as I learned French, with all its pronomial verbs, I have to admit it changes the way, I think. And, by consciously changing the way I think, it facilitated learning the second language.

[exekow]

Thank you, very interesting.
I don't know if there are any datas on this, but do we know if the idea of time travel could be absolutely unintelligible for some cultures, for some language speakers ?

[muma]

Maybe chicken/egg thing ... maybe how a group of people thought (pre-language) shaped the development of the language they speak which is reinforced by the way they think (reflection of what they perceive in sensory input of their surroundings). So there will be gradual evolution of the language and the way they think ... and, indeed, influenced by other languages and the transmission of ideas between groups of different language speakers. The (type of) turmoil of today is, in part, due to the criss crossing communication and sharing of cultures throughout the world because of the ease with which information can be transmitted. It can be overwhelming and generate fear trying to incorporate so much information.

[frankkneeland]

I wanted to elaborate on what I meant by people's lives ruined over their definitions of words. I worked in the casino industry and was referring to disordered gamblers. Their internal definitions of words such as, "Winning", "random", "lucky", etc...are almost always askew and add to the cognitive distortion present in most pathological gamblers.

[helengrives]

Very awesome talk. I get inspired. How do large language models deal with these subtleties? Could we make them detect these patterns? Instead of substitute everything with ‘freedom”?

[bedi]

My 5 year old does not speak my native language Hindi. But totally knows when to correct me when I get grammatical genders wrong. She somehow knows enough language through listening.