Read the short Newsweek article and respond in 200-250 words.
I just read the article “what’s in a word?” by Sharon Begley. In the article Begley talks about a how different cultures view objects differently. Then Begley mentions a woman by the name of Lera Boroditsky. She believes in the theory sapir-whorf hypothesis discovered by linguist Benjamin Lee Whorf.
Our book states that sapir-whorf hypothesis is a theory that says; if we remember linguistically, it stands to reason that the nature of our language affects the nature of our thought. From this theory two terms were constructed: linguistic determinism and relativity. Linguistic determinism says that language determines thought while linguistic relativity says that people from different language communities look at the world in their own ways. From this Boroditsky derives the idea that depending on the gender of nouns, meanings can be perceived differently.
The article gives an example of Boroditsky’s idea with the meaning of the word key. The article says that in German key is a masculine word, so Germans describe keys as heavy, hard, and jagged. In Spanish, key is a feminine word and is described as golden, intricate, and lovely. As you can see the meanings were based on gender related words or report and rapport talk. In our book rapport talk is based on relationship meaning, it uses interpersonal topics and intimate contexts. Report talk is based content or task-oriented talk. One way to get rid of innate meanings of words is by using performative aspects of language. This is when we define word by social performances rather than instinctive characteristics of words.
Good Job Brianna -- Nice application of concepts from our book. Does it seem to you that the German and Spanish ways of talking about keys really reflect "report & rapport" talk? Please review what Tannen says. The two ways of talking about keys DO support the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis though, that is true!
ReplyDelete