Lera Boroditsky Ted Talk Analysis Essay Example

📌Category: Speech
📌Words: 1029
📌Pages: 4
📌Published: 18 June 2022

Language influences the way we think about things. Lera Boroditski shows us this in her ted talk.

Lera Boroditski is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Science at UCSD she has a Bachelors in cognitive science from Northwestern University and went to graduate school at Stanford. Lera performed a ted talk explaining how language shapes the way we think. In it she explains the ways that language influences thought all around the world. For example, when talking about how to greet people in Kuuk Thaayorre she states that “The way that you say 'hello' in Kuuk Thaayorre is you say, 'Which way are you going?' And the answer should be, "North-northeast in the far distance. How about you?'” (Boroditsky 2018) This shows us that in order to say hello in this language you need to constantly know which cardinal direction you're facing. Very alien to American culture where we don't even think about it half the time. Constantly thinking about which cardinal direction you're facing will most likely influence the way you observe and think about things. She goes on further to share an example of this in the Russian language. She brings up the fact that the Russian language has more words for different colors. For example, light blue and dark blue are two different colors for them but in English we’d probably just say blue for both. “When we test people's ability to perceptually discriminate between these colors. What we find is that Russian speakers are faster across this linguistic boundary.” (Boroditsky 2018) This shows us that the Russian language, having more ways to distinguish colors than English; has proven to increase the speed at which Native Russian speakers can distinguish colors. This evidence can guide us to the conclusion that the language itself shapes how Russian speakers see colors and most likely think about them. 

Apart from influencing how someone views something, language can also alter one's memory of an event. This is best illustrated by two scientists. Elizabeth Loftus, an American cognitive psychologist and expert on human memory. And John Palmer, graduate of Duke University with a bachelors in psychology and a  Ph. D. in psychology from the University of Texas. He assisted Loftus in experimenting how the way leading questions are asked can affect the accounts of eyewitnesses. This is what they found out. After showing 45 students split up into groups 7 films of traffic accidents. Loftus and Palmer asked the students ‘about how fast were the cars going when they (smashed / collided / bumped / hit / contacted) each other?’ To which Loftus and Palmer found that “The estimated speed was affected by the verb used. The verb implied information about the speed, which systematically affected the participants’ memory of the accident.” (L&P 1974)  This shows us that language has a big role on how we remember events. In another experiment conducted by Loftus and Palmer, 150 students were shown a one minute film which showed a car driving through the countryside followed by four seconds of a traffic accident. They then after the film asked 50 students how fast the cars were going when they hit and another 50 how fast the cars were going when they smashed. The students were then asked if there was any broken glass during the collision. There was no broken glass in the collision. Loftus and Palmer found that “Participants who were asked how fast the cars were going when they smashed were more likely to report seeing broken glass.”(L&P 1974). The fact that there was no broken glass shows us that simply the way the question was asked influenced the memories and thoughts of the participants. Not only does language alter memory, it also perpetuates the feeling of belonging, especially in the case of a foreigner in America not knowing English. Richard Rodriguez is an American writer who became famous as the author of Hunger of Memory, a narrative about his intellectual development. Rodriguez received a B.A. from Stanford University, an M.A. from Columbia University, was a pH.D. candidate in English Renaissance literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and attended the Warburg Institute in London on a Fulbright fellowship. In a book, Rodriguez wrote about his experience with the English language before he could speak it. He was about 5 and he knew almost only Spanish knowing just enough English to buy stuff for his mother. When writing about the two languages he informed us of how they made him feel. Specifically his feelings about Spanish. When he was away from home he wrote about how it felt. He didn't understand the noises or sounds that were going on around him. This level of disassociation led him to feel more detached from his community and ‘los gringos'. He went more in-depth with this by telling of how it sounded to hear a customer and a cashier talk in English “The man behind the counter would literally ask, 'What can I do for you?' But by being so firm and so clear, the sound of his voice said that he was a gringo; he belonged in public society.”(Rodriguez 1988) This awareness of who belongs and who doesn't shows us that language itself perpetuates a sense of belonging. If you feel like you belong somewhere you'll tend to be more laid back and confident. That feeling of  connection because you share your language with the community you're in will most definitely influence the way you think.

Rodriguez, while on the same topic goes on to share his more negative experiences with the language barrier. Specifically, his parents struggle with English. Rodriguez knew that his English at the time wasn't good. But to hear his own parents try to speak was very troubling for him. He heard the differences between the way his parents spoke and the way everyone else did. It was ‘unsettling’ for him “Hearing them (struggle), I'd grow nervous, my clutching trust in their protection and power weakened.”(Rodriguez 1988) Language weakened Rodriguezes comfort with his father. He didn't feel safe when he heard him unable to confidently speak English. On the other hadn however, when he returned home. Sometimes he would stand outside the screen door hearing his family speak Spanish. He just sat there, enjoying it. It comforted him, hearing Spanish to him was like a welcome home call “It became the language of joyful return.” (Rodriguez 1988) This feeling of comfort, anxiety or relief perpetuated by language without a doubt proves that feelings are also influenced by language.

These studies, experiences and information by Boroditsky, Rodriguez, Loftus and Palmer prove as well as show us that thoughts, feelings and memories. Are all shaped and influenced by language.

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