4 ms·

Link to the full article in PDF which is also NOT under a pay wall. http://psychology.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/sci-am-2011.pdf http://psychology.stanford.edu/

Link to the full article in PDF which is also NOT under a pay wall. http://psychology.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/sci-am-2011.pdf http://psychology.stanford.edu/~lera/papers/sci-am-2011.pdf I think anyone who knows more than one language implicitly realizes the conclusions of this paper but she has some fascinating examples.

philh 15y ago
Apologies. I didn't realise there was a paywall; I'm not sure why it works for me. Can a mod edit the link?
jsnell 15y ago
That's a strong claim. It's possible that bilingual people behave differently when using different languages as the article claims (I have my doubts), but even so they might not be aware of it on any level. At least I don't think my world view is affected in any way regardless of which language I'm using of the 4 I know.
- keeptrying 15y ago
  Are the four languages you know from the same root language or from similar cultures? Let's take Hindi and English.let's say I'm talking to "Fred" who is 15 years older than me. In english I would say " Fred how are you doing?" The Hindi version would be "uncle friend how are you? (using the respectful forms of the word "you"). And because I'm using the respectful form, I would genuinely feel more respectful of all my elders.
  - jsnell 15y ago
    No, my native Finnish is not related to the other three (which are all Germanic). To take your example, as far as I know there's no difference in the respect I feel for people when using a language where the courtesy form of "you" is basically mandatory (German), archaic and basically never used (Finnish), or non-existent (English). Now, maybe there is some effect there that I can't notice that could be ferreted out with some psychological experiment. But the original claim that everyone knowing more than one language would implicitly be agreeing with the article is just not true.
    - kragen 15y ago
      Technically, it's the familiar form of "you" that is non-existent in modern English. It was "thou". I agree that it's not at all obvious from my experience that there would be such significant differences between languages.
  - Groxx 15y ago
    >And because I'm using the respectful form, I would genuinely feel more respectful of all my elders. Or oppressed by them. Or annoyed by the (often) increased length from using honorifics. That's a horrific blanket statement I see associated all the time with language-affecting-thought, and it flies in the face of people's actual behavior, and completely ignores social pressures that I would think are massively more influential. Which will influence your thought more: that your language has honorifics, or that you'll be pounded and/or ostracized for not using them? Our survival and social instincts are rather powerful.
- andreaja 15y ago
  Bilingual here (so this is anecdotal). When I'm immersed in the different lingual environments I notice fairly substantive differences in my identity. It's not stuff that's necessarily very apparent to bystanders (as far as I can tell). The differences aren't necessarily as sweeping as 'world view'. I don't change political preferences by changing language.

philh 15y ago

Apologies. I didn't realise there was a paywall; I'm not sure why it works for me. Can a mod edit the link?

jsnell 15y ago

That's a strong claim. It's possible that bilingual people behave differently when using different languages as the article claims (I have my doubts), but even so they might not be aware of it on any level. At least I don't think my world view is affected in any way regardless of which language I'm using of the 4 I know.

keeptrying 15y ago
Are the four languages you know from the same root language or from similar cultures? Let's take Hindi and English.let's say I'm talking to "Fred" who is 15 years older than me. In english I would say " Fred how are you doing?" The Hindi version would be "uncle friend how are you? (using the respectful forms of the word "you"). And because I'm using the respectful form, I would genuinely feel more respectful of all my elders.
- jsnell 15y ago
  No, my native Finnish is not related to the other three (which are all Germanic). To take your example, as far as I know there's no difference in the respect I feel for people when using a language where the courtesy form of "you" is basically mandatory (German), archaic and basically never used (Finnish), or non-existent (English). Now, maybe there is some effect there that I can't notice that could be ferreted out with some psychological experiment. But the original claim that everyone knowing more than one language would implicitly be agreeing with the article is just not true.
  - kragen 15y ago
    Technically, it's the familiar form of "you" that is non-existent in modern English. It was "thou". I agree that it's not at all obvious from my experience that there would be such significant differences between languages.
- Groxx 15y ago
  >And because I'm using the respectful form, I would genuinely feel more respectful of all my elders. Or oppressed by them. Or annoyed by the (often) increased length from using honorifics. That's a horrific blanket statement I see associated all the time with language-affecting-thought, and it flies in the face of people's actual behavior, and completely ignores social pressures that I would think are massively more influential. Which will influence your thought more: that your language has honorifics, or that you'll be pounded and/or ostracized for not using them? Our survival and social instincts are rather powerful.
andreaja 15y ago
Bilingual here (so this is anecdotal). When I'm immersed in the different lingual environments I notice fairly substantive differences in my identity. It's not stuff that's necessarily very apparent to bystanders (as far as I can tell). The differences aren't necessarily as sweeping as 'world view'. I don't change political preferences by changing language.