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Language is a beautifully intricate system that allows us to express our thoughts, emotions, and experiences—things that would be incommunicable and senseless otherwise. It serves as a bridge between minds, enabling us to share our perspectives with others while also building connections where none would be without it.
However, language is more than just a conduit for conversation; it is a powerful force that shapes the way we think, perceive, and understand the world around us.
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis—developed by two academics who greatly influenced the field of psycholinguistics—proposes that language not only reflects our thoughts but also influences them. According to their theory of linguistic relativity, the language we speak shapes our perception of reality and the way we make sense of the world. This captivating theory bridges the gap between psychology and linguistics, and is exemplified in two curious ways.
1. Language Influences Our Perception Of Time
One intriguing aspect of language’s influence on thought is its impact on how we conceptualize the passage of time. This may sound arbitrary to some. Since time is ubiquitous, how could language influence the way we imagine it? Although time itself may be a universal concept, research reveals that the way we perceive it and represent it can vary based on linguistic differences.
Consider the continuum of life, from birth to death. Now, consider also the directionality of language—whether it is written from left to right, right to left, or even vertically. Studies show this directional aspect of language can influence how we spatially construct the passage of time.
For example, English speakers generally arrange the temporal sequence of life to death from left to right, mirroring the direction of their written language. In contrast, Hebrew speakers, whose language is written from right to left, conceptualize this progression in the opposite direction.
Interestingly, some individuals envision time dynamically based on their language. Research published in Psychological Science explored the spatial representations of time among speakers of Kuuk Thaayorre, a language native to the Aboriginal community of Pormpuraaw, Australia. In contrast to other languages, Kuuk Thaayorre speakers would not arrange this progression from left to right or right to left. Unlike English or Hebrew, Kuuk Thaayorre does not rely on relative spatial terms like “left” or “right.” Instead, they use absolute cardinal directions: north, south, east, and west.
As a result, their conceptualization of time is inherently tied to these cardinal directions. When asked to depict temporal sequences, Kuuk Thaayorre speakers routinely arranged them based on their own spatial orientation rather than a constant, predefined direction—always from east to west. When facing southwards, they’d present time as moving from left to right, and right to left when facing northwards. Eastwards, they’d represent it as front to back, and vice versa when westwards.
Ask a child speaker of Kuuk Thaayorre to point north, and they will do so far faster and more easily than an English adult with a compass at hand. Linguistic relativity shows how language does more than just reflect and shape our perception of time; it informs how we view and interact with our surroundings.
2. Language Impacts How We Make Sense Of Information
Another fascinating consequence of linguistic relativity is the role language has in shaping how different people make sense of information. Every language possesses its own unique rules and exceptions in terms of semantics, syntax, and morphology. Due to these linguistic variances, it is possible that the exact same idea may hold different information and meanings based on the language it is expressed in.
Again, this may sound bizarre—if speakers of different languages are discussing the exact same idea, how could one person make more or less sense of the idea than the other? To illustrate, consider this interesting thought posed by Lera Boroditsky, the author of the previously mentioned study. Imagine, for instance, that you’re trying to tell someone about the time you went to your aunt’s 53rd birthday party:
- If this conversation was spoken in Mian, one of the over 800 languages spoken in Papua New Guinea, just the verb used alone would be able to indicate whether this party happened long ago, yesterday, or even just a moment ago.
- In contrast, if this conversation was in Indonesian, the verb would give no indication of time whatsoever; you wouldn’t know if it already happened or if it was still coming up.
- The verb used would also disclose your gender to the listener if you discussed the party in Russian, Hebrew, Tamil, Hindi, or Polish (and more).
- If said in Mandarin, the noun used to refer to your aunt would act as a tiny family tree. It would discern whether she’s from your mother’s or father’s side, as well as whether she married into your family or is blood-related.
- And if you had this conversation in Pirahã, an Amazonian language, you would have absolutely no way to indicate she had turned 53—words referring to exact numbers do not exist in Pirahã, only for “few” and “many.”
Despite conveying the same underlying idea, the language used profoundly impacts our understanding of it. This exemplifies how language both reflects and morphs our cognition. From the start to the end of our lives, our mother tongues are the lenses through which we perceive and interpret the world, unknowingly shaping our cognitive processes in countless ways.
From a psychological standpoint, language is more than just speech and writing. It serves as a vessel through which each person derives meaning from every past, present, and future experience. While life’s events may seem objectively clear-cut, it’s curious to consider how something as seemingly commonplace as a language can subtly shape our perceptions of these occurrences. The notion that different languages could result in fundamentally distinct worldviews is a testament to the captivating nature of the theory of linguistic relativity.
This article also appears on Forbes.com.
