Lera Boroditsky: How language shapes the way we think
ليرا بوروديتسكي: كيف تُشكّل اللغة الطريقة التي نفكر بها
Lera Boroditsky is trying to figure out how humans get so smart. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
using language ...
that we humans have.
thoughts to one another.
I'm making sounds with my mouth
بصنع أصوات بواسطة فمي
air vibrations in the air.
those vibrations from your eardrums
we humans are able to transmit our ideas
البشر قادرون على نقل أفكارنا
knowledge across minds.
in your mind right now.
relatively well in your life so far,
نسبياً بشكل جيد في حياتك،
that thought before.
one language in the world,
spoken around the world.
from one another in all kinds of ways.
shape the way we think?
ُتشكل الطريقة التي نفكر بها؟
about this question forever.
هذا السؤال منذ الأزل.
is to have a second soul" --
تكون لديك روح ثانية"...
that language crafts reality.
Shakespeare has Juliet say,
شكسبير على لسان جوليت،
would smell as sweet."
language doesn't craft reality.
ربما لا تصنع الواقع.
back and forth for thousands of years.
ذهاباً وإياباً لآلاف السنوات.
there hasn't been any data
and other labs around the world,
ومُختبرات أخرى حول العالم،
to weigh in on this question.
علمية لإجابة هذا السؤال.
some of my favorite examples.
from an Aboriginal community in Australia
في أستراليا
at the very west edge of Cape York.
من كيب يورك.
words like "left" and "right,"
كلمات مثل " اليسار" و "اليمين،"
is in cardinal directions:
في الاتجاهات الأصلية:
I really mean everything.
on your southwest leg."
to the north-northeast a little bit."
والشمال الشرقي قليلا. "
in Kuuk Thaayorre is you say,
مرحباً بلغة كوك تايور هي
around your day,
oriented pretty fast, right?
couldn't get past "hello,"
which way you were going.
like this stay oriented really well.
لغات مُماثلة يبقون متقاربين.
than we used to think humans could.
نعتقد أن البشر قادرون عليها.
were worse than other creatures
أسوأ من بقية المخلوقات
in our beaks or in our scales."
أو هياكلنا العظمية."
trains you to do it,
who stay oriented really well.
from the way we do it,
your eyes for a second
there, there, there, there ...
هناك، هناك، هناك ...
in this room was not very high.
هذه الغرفة لم تكن عالية.
ability across languages, right?
خلال اللغات، أليس كذلك؟
distinguished group like you guys --
مجموعة متميزة مثلكم...
and they would know.
بعمر خمس سنوات وسيعرف.
in how people think about time.
تفكير الناس في الوقت.
of my grandfather at different ages.
في مراحل عمرية مختلفة.
to organize time,
الإنجليزية لينظم الوقت،
in the opposite direction,
told you about, do it?
التي أخبرتكم عنها؟
like "left" and "right."
مثل "اليسار" و "اليمين".
get locked on the body at all,
then time goes this way.
سيكون الوقت بهذه الطريقة
the direction of time chase me around
كان اتجاه الوقت يلاحقني
time is locked on the landscape.
مُعلق على المنظر الذي تتجه،
of thinking about time.
how many penguins are there.
that problem if you solved it.
ستقومون بحل المشكلة في حال فعلتم.
four, five, six, seven, eight."
خمسة، سته، سبعة، ثمانية."
was the number of penguins.
that you're taught to use as kids.
and you learn how to apply it.
don't have exact number words.
a word like "seven"
these languages don't count,
بهذه اللغات لا يقومون بالعد،
keeping track of exact quantities.
to match this number of penguins
مُطابقة عدد البطاريق هذه
that linguistic trait can't do that.
هذه الخدعة اللغوية لا يستطيعون.
they divide up the color spectrum --
تقسيم سُلم الألوان...
lots of words for colors,
من الكلمات للألوان،
"light" and "dark."
"فاتح" و "غامق."
boundaries between colors.
there's a world for blue
that you can see on the screen,
have to differentiate
بالروسية يجب أن يميزوا
of experience of, in language,
من التجربة، في اللغة،
to perceptually discriminate these colors,
بشكل ملموس بين هذه الألوان،
Russian speakers are faster
to tell the difference
as they're looking at colors --
عندما ينظرون للألوان...
from light to dark blue --
من الأزرق الفاتح إلى الغامق...
different words for light and dark blue
مختلفة للأزرق الفاتح والغامق
as the colors shift from light to dark,
تنتقل الألوان من الأفتح للأغمق،
has categorically changed,"
of English speakers, for example,
المتحدث للإنجليزية، مثلاً،
this categorical distinction,
of structural quirks.
often masculine or feminine.
in German but masculine in Spanish,
ولكنها مذكر بالأسبانية،
consequence for how people think?
تأثير على كيفية تفكير الناس؟
as somehow more female-like,
بالشمس بشكل ما كما الأنثى،
to, say, describe a bridge,
الألمانية والأسبانية بوصف جسر،
feminine in German,
to say bridges are "beautiful," "elegant"
الجسر"جميلة"، "أنيقة"
will be more likely to say
على الأغلب سيقولون
they describe events, right?
"He broke the vase."
نقول، "لقد كسر المزهرية."
to say, "The vase broke,"
that someone did it.
we can even say things like,
يمكنك قول أشياء مثل،
unless you are a lunatic
السابقة إلا في حال كنت مجنوناً
looking to break your arm --
you would use a different construction.
will pay attention to different things,
لغات مختلفة سيلاحظون أمورًا مختلفة،
usually requires them to do.
to English speakers and Spanish speakers,
بالإنجليزية وآخر بالأسبانية،
to say, "He did it; he broke the vase."
قول، " لقد فعل ذلك: هو من كسر المزهرية."
less likely to remember who did it
أقل احتمالاً لتذكر من كسرها
that it was an accident.
to remember the intention.
different things about that event.
أمرين مختلفين عن نفس الحدث.
for eyewitness testimony.
على شهادة شهود العيان.
for blame and punishment.
someone breaking a vase,
as opposed to "The vase broke,"
كنقيض ل"كسرت المزهرية،"
if I just said, "He broke it,"
our reasoning about events.
shape the way we think,
تشكل الطريقة التي نفكر بها،
coordinate frames from each other.
really deep effects --
تأثيرات عميقة حقاً...
with the case of number.
you can't do algebra,
من استخدام الجبر،
to build a room like this
gives you a stepping stone
العد تعطيك نقطة انطلاق
really early effects,
basic, perceptual decisions.
perceptual decisions that we make.
للقرارات الإدراكية التي نتخذها.
may be a little silly,
قد تكون سخيفة بعض الشيء،
grammatical gender applies to all nouns.
ينطبق على جميع الأسماء.
how you're thinking
named by a noun.
of how language can shape things
يمكن للغة تشكيل الأشياء
or eyewitness memory.
أو ذاكرة شاهد العيان.
in our daily lives.
is that it reveals to us
اللغوي في أنه يكشف لنا
the human mind is.
not one cognitive universe, but 7,000 --
إدراك معرفي واحد ولكن 7000...
spoken around the world.
and change to suit our needs.
وتغييرها لتلبية احتياجاتنا.
so much of this linguistic diversity
الكثير من هذا التنوع اللغوي
will be gone in the next hundred years.
خلال المئة سنة القادمة.
the human mind and human brain
البشري والدماغ البشري
English-speaking undergraduates
بالأمريكية-الإنجليزية
is actually incredibly narrow and biased,
مبني على نظرة ضيقة ومنحازة،
with this final thought.
of different languages think differently,
مختلفة يفكرون بطريقة مختلفة،
how people elsewhere think.
تفكير الناس في مكان آخر.
shapes the way that you think.
بها تشكل الطريقة التي تفكر بها.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Lera Boroditsky - Cognitive scientistLera Boroditsky is trying to figure out how humans get so smart.
Why you should listen
Lera Boroditsky is an associate professor of cognitive science at University of California San Diego and editor in chief of Frontiers in Cultural Psychology. She previously served on the faculty at MIT and at Stanford. Her research is on the relationships between mind, world and language (or how humans get so smart).
Boroditsky has been named one of 25 visionaries changing the world by the Utne Reader, and is also a Searle Scholar, a McDonnell scholar, recipient of an NSF Career award and an APA Distinguished Scientist lecturer. She once used the Indonesian exclusive "we" correctly before breakfast and was proud of herself about it all day.
Lera Boroditsky | Speaker | TED.com