HOW LANGUAGE SHAPES THE WAY WE THINK

Nombre de la alumna: Oriana Acosta, Agustín Aguilar y Carla Deheza

Nombre del docente: Yamila Spat

Asignatura: Lingüística II

Carrera: Profesorado de inglés

Curso: 4 año

Villa María

2021
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 How Language Shapes the Way We Think

This conference is about how language can determine the way we perceive and feel about

the world. This text is an informative or expository text because it identifies and characterizes

a phenomenon. Moreover, this text gives facts, information or news in a step-by-step way;

besides, it also has some characteristics of a descriptive text because the writer is trying to

help you imagine or ‘see’ a person, place or thing. In the transcription, we can see an example

which says "Imagine a jellyfish waltzing in a library while thinking about quantum

mechanics.".

The author of the text, Lera Boroditsky, developed this topic since she is an assistant

professor of psychology, neuroscience, and symbolic systems at Stanford University, who

looks at how the languages we speak shape the way we think. In this script, one example

about self-reference could be the following one “This is one of these magical abilities that

we humans have.”

This transcript was extracted from a scientific conference. The audience needs to have

previous knowledge about how language functions and influences the way people

communicate. Furthermore, the participants may be experts and inexperts in the topic since

despite the fact that the topic is complex, the author makes it easier to understand through

different daily life examples. In addition, readers have to be interested in the importance that

language has in the different cultures if they are considering reading this text. What is more,

the author expects the readers to be informed about how language shapes the way we think.

The author’s opinion is understandable since during the conference it is well-developed

with examples and making self-references as personal experiences; however, the topic is

exposed in an objective way. The author also includes the following two viewpoints in order

to take them as starter points to continue explaining: “Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor,

said, "To have a second language is to have a second soul" -- strong statement that language

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crafts reality. But on the other hand, Shakespeare has Juliet say, "What's in a name? A rose

by any other name would smell as sweet." Well, that suggests that maybe language doesn't

craft reality. These arguments have gone back and forth for thousands of years.” This script

expresses past events that impact our current society because it exposes how language shapes

the way we think.

In order to support and express the ideas, it is important to research the previous

information that the speaker is going to develop during the conference. There are some

uncited references, such as “So let me tell you about some of my favourite examples. I'll start

with an example from an Aboriginal community in Australia that I had the chance to work

with. These are the Kuuk Thaayorre people. They live in Pormpuraaw at the very west edge

of Cape York. What's cool about Kuuk Thaayorre is, in Kuuk Thaayorre, they don't use

words like "left" and "right," and instead, everything is in cardinal directions: north, south,

east and west”. Most authors refrain from explaining or introducing these sources because it

is humdrum for the audience since it is not the primary objective. The speech is composed of

different scientific studies about different groups of people (Australian aboriginal tribes,

Germans, Russians, Spanish and English). Moreover, the author presents the topic by

exposing all the proofs as scientific studies.

The organization of the whole transcript is the following one:

Paragraph 1: the author talks about the spoken languages all around the world in order to

make a short introduction.

Paragraph 2: the author expresses the idea that she is using language by explaining how

the sounds are produced.

Paragraph 3: the author is explaining a fact about our minds through an example.

Paragraph 4: the author explains that all languages have different rules.

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 Paragraph 5, 6 and 14: Scientific researches around the world. For example, aboriginal

community in Australia.

Paragraph 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11: The language depends on the culture. Furthermore, there are

humans around the world who stay oriented really well.

Paragraph 12: a big difference in cognitive ability across languages.

Paragraph 13: How people think about time?

Paragraph 15: How people consider quantities?

Paragraph 16: Language is related to the ability to discriminate colours.

Paragraph 17: Grammatical gender.

Paragraph 18: Languages also differ in how people describe events.

Paragraph 19: Differences between English and Spanish speakers regarding intentions

when speaking.

Paragraph 20, 21 and 22: The different effects that language has.

Paragraph 22: How the human mind is?

Paragraph 23: Final thought and a piece of advice.

The authors refer to themselves as “we” because they want to make the participants

part of their speech. Moreover, the author includes technical terminology such as colour

spectrum, eyewitness testimony, linguistic boundary, categorically changing, categorical

distinction, among others. The author selects those words in order to support their speech

reliably. At last, the speaker made some assumptions such as “So let's just say the accuracy

in this room was not very high. This is a big difference in cognitive ability across languages,

right? Where one group -- very distinguished group like you guys -- doesn't know which way

is which, but in another group, I could ask a five-year-old and they would know”. The

author also uses figurative language to make the audience get interested in what she is saying,

such as "Imagine a jellyfish waltzing in a library while thinking about quantum mechanics."

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 All in all, the conference was well-organized and the topic was highly well-developed

through different examples. The author did not relate her conference with another one since

that topic was really specific, with particular experiences and researches. What is more, the

speaker included technical terminology for the participants to learn about the topic. In order

to perform a successful piece of writing, it is necessary to take into account coherence,

cohesion, purpose, target audience, type of text and organization.