Elizabeth Barrette (ysabetwordsmith) wrote,
Elizabeth Barrette
ysabetwordsmith
  • Mood: busy

Language Influences Thought

...in these 5 examples.

However, a crucial counterpoint is that English makes it easy to NOT lay blame, with the passive exonerative ("Mistakes were made.")  English is a popular business langauge, partly because of that passive exonerative: many other languages require  specifying who or what caused something (bad or good) to happen.
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  • 23 comments
...go 2 levels up... Expand

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ysabetwordsmith

Re: Yes...

ysabetwordsmith

May 28 2011, 19:35:42 UTC 10 years ago

One of the most dramatic shifts is what the language requires you to pay attention to and specify. In English, you must specify a gender for people; it's awkward to avoid doing that. In Japanese it's social rank and politeness level. Some languages have evidence markers that require you to specify how you know the things you're saying. Some languages require a lot of detail in the verbs -- how often something happens, and other contextual details. Going from a language that doesn't do X to one that requires X will darn well make you a lot more aware of X.

  • Photographs

    I took some pictures of my yard today. Read about what makes a good wildlife yard and Fieldhaven as habitat. The larger brush pile is still…

  • Birdfeeding

    Today is partly sunny and delightfully mild. I fed the birds. I've seen a small flock of house finches and a few sparrows. I walked around the yard…

  • Fieldhaven as Habitat

    If you follow my posts on gardening, birdfeeding, and photos, then you know that I garden for wildlife. Looking at the YardMap parameters, here…