English B

Identity

Article
Boroditsky, Lera. “How Language Shapes Thought.” Scientific American. Vol. 304, No. 2
(February 2011), pp. 62-65.

https://web.uvic.ca/~dbub/Cognition_Action/SpecialTopicsEssays_files/How
%20Language%20Shapes%20Thought.pdf

Reading comprehension
1. What did the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, formulated in the 1930s, propose? What was the
issue with the hypothesis?

2. True / false: “The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, although it fell out of popularity for some time,
is once again embraced by linguists today.”

3. The author claims that the language we speak affects the many ways in which we make
meaning of the world around us. What examples does she give for each of the follow-
ing?

a. understanding space

b. understanding time

c. remembering events and how they happened

d. learning new things

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Vocabulary tasks
1. Use the context and your knowledge of English prefixes to deduce the meaning of the
following words.

a. eminent (p.63) _______________________________________

b. disenchanted (p.63) _______________________________________

c. innumerable (p.64) _______________________________________

d. wiggle (p.64) _______________________________________

e. evasive (p.64) _______________________________________

f. ingenious (p.65) _______________________________________

g. involuntary (p.65) _______________________________________

h. encapsulate (p.65) _______________________________________

i. unravel (p.65) _______________________________________

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TED Talk
“How language shapes the way we think | Lera Boroditsky” (2018)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k (15 mins)

Questions about the delivery:

1. How does Boroditsky engage the audience throughout her talk?

2. How does she make sure the audience understands the main ideas of her talk?

3. How does she conclude her talk? What makes the conclusion effective / ineffective?

Comprehension questions:
4. What idea does the speaker illustrate using the examples of Charlemagne and
Shakespeare?

5. What specific features does the language spoken by the Kuuk Thaayorre people have?

6. What specific feature of Russian does Boroditsky mention, and how is this feature
reflected in the brain of the speakers of the language?

7. What is a grammatical gender?

8. How does the way witnesses describe an event depend on the language the witness
speaks? What implications does this have?

9. True/false: “Languages are set and cannot be changed.”

10. True/false: “Linguistic diversity is deteriorating.” Justify your answer.

11. True/false: “Current scientific research contributes to our improved understanding of the
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human mind.” Justify your answer.