How Language Shapes Thought

When given a set of images showing the passing of time - for example, a baby maturing into an adult and then becoming an old man - speakers of English will arrange the images from left to right. Speakers of Hebrew will arrange them from right to left. No matter where the experiment is conducted, speakers of certain Australian aboriginal languages arrange the images from East to West, in orientation the daylight path of the sun across the sky.

Do the languages we speak influence the way we think? Is there intrinsic value in human linguistic diversity? Join us as Stanford cognitive linguist Lera Boroditsky re-invigorates this long standing debate with data gathered in experiments with speakers from all over the world.

Speaker: Lera Boroditsky

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