That language embodies different ways of knowing the world seems intuitive, given the number of times we reach for a word or phrase in another language that communicates that certain je ne sais quoi we can’t find on our own.

An old language tree

Noam Chomsky’s contribution to the idea that languages around the world contained a “universal grammar” is debunked by new research on the ways we experience space, time and causality. Below are some examples from the article of how language affects our perception of the world.

Russian speakers, who have more words for light and dark blues, are better able to visually discriminate shades of blue.

Some indigenous tribes say north, south, east and west, rather than left and right, and as a consequence have great spatial orientation.

The Piraha, whose language eschews number words in favor of terms like few and many, are not able to keep track of exact quantities.

In one study, Spanish and Japanese speakers couldn’t remember the agents of accidental events as adeptly as English speakers could. Why? In Spanish and Japanese, the agent of causality is dropped: ‘The vase broke itself,’ rather than ‘John broke the vase.’

Words in Chinese and Japanese for specific positions within a family’s hierarchy, e.g. oneesan (“older sister”) and otoutosan (“younger brother”), convey the importance of knowing one’s role, which impacts the cognitive process. The use of kinship terms like “mother” and “brother” between strangers in Arabic-speaking countries is connected to the predominant sense of family and community. It seems that examples abound for the argument that language informs and reinforces culture and logic, which means our thought processes vary according to the language we speak.

What kinds of challenges does this idea pose to global business and cross-cultural interaction, even if people can speak in the same language? How does this affect the minds of multilingual people? Are they able to switch modes of thought, just as they switch from one code or language to another?

Grayson

RW3 CultureWizard