Name: Linguistic Relativity: How Language Shapes Thought
Uploaded: 2025-07-20T18:55:33.000Z
Duration: 6 min 35 s
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Adverbs of degree

Linguistic relativity theory suggests that the languages we pick up and use influence how we see the world, the perception of our surroundings, our sense of time, our memories, our behavior, and even our sense of self.

Each language has different words that describe the things around us, and these differences change the way we perceive these things.

For example, an Italian might see objects as male or female, while an English speaker won't, a phenomenon that extends to the perception of space.

The Cooktaior, an aboriginal tribe, does not use left or right in their language.

Instead, they rely on cardinal directions, north, east, south, and west.

They might say, pass me the salt on the southwest of the pepper.

It's probably no coincidence that they have supernatural navigational skills.

Because languages are written in different directions, people who write left to right will perceive the sequence of events accordingly.

Speakers of Arabic and Hebrew might do so the other way around.

In the Emil language in Papua New Guinea, there are three forms of past tense, today's past tense, yesterday's, and remote past tense.

To use the correct verb, speakers need to pay close attention to when something has happened, and hence may perceive the past in greater detail.

In English, if a child breaks a vase accidentally, we may say, he broke the vase, putting the responsibility on the kid.

In Spanish, people would say, el jarón se rompió, or the vase broke, giving more credit to the environment, a small difference with big consequences.

Studies show that speakers of languages like Spanish that tend to consider these kind of events accidental are less likely to recall the people involved.

In languages that emphasize an intention, the actors are remembered more clearly.

And if things end up in court, the accused is more likely to be found guilty if the language used during the trial is active, like English.

Languages are often associated with culture and with the context in which it was learned.

As a result, those who speak various languages access different parts of themselves.

One study on Spanish-English bilinguals showed that people exhibit different personality traits when switching their language.

When speaking English, subjects were more agreeable, but when they switched to Spanish, they were more neurotic.

The words we speak also influence how we feel about ourselves.

Self-affirming language, for example, activates brain areas linked to reward and self-perception and can increase our confidence, an effect that extends to how we perceive pain.

Bilinguals report greater levels of pain when they speak the language to which they relate the most.

If one language represents a bigger part of their identity, they also perceive the sensations inside their body with greater intensity.

With about 7,000 languages all around us, nobody knows exactly how they affect our minds, but they certainly frame our thoughts and influence the way we look at the world.

In Thai, for example, the word for heart, jai, is woven into their language to describe a variety of human traits.

Someone friendly is jai di, literally a good heart.

Someone that's patient is jai yen, a cool heart.

And someone generous is jai guang, a big heart.

As Benjamin Lee Whorf, the linguist behind the theory, wrote, language is not merely a reproducing instrument for voicing ideas, but rather is itself the shaper of ideas, the program and guide for the individual's mental activity.

So if you ever learn a new language, remember, you're not just learning new words, you're opening your mind to a new way of seeing and interacting with the world.

And if so, do you feel like your behavior changes when you switch between them?

Tell us your thoughts and experiences in the comments below.

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