Does Your Language Shape Language

We all have the a gift of speaking and perceiving languages. Whether it is sound or soundless we use language to communicate with one another.There are many ways to approach someone when it comes to the word choice you use to communicate. Many languages contain different forms in where they can be comprehended. The readings “Does Your Language Shape How You Think?” by Guy Deutscher and “Lost in Translation” by Lera Boroditsky, discuss how the languages we speak can shape the way we think, and the way we perceive things differ from the aspects of language. In general, I agree with the position these both authors take, languages we speak do shape the way we think through grammatical structures, language of space and orientation, and time. Grammatical

Deutscher acknowledges that Whorf, a linguist who claimed that the mother tongue one speaks enables one’s way of thinking, made a mistake in his theory. Deutscher believes that instead of focusing on searching evidence for what stops the language speaker from thinking, the focus should be centered on how our mother tongue may help shape how we think about the world (448). He shares how the German, French, Russian, and Spanish languages compels the native speaker to use grammatical structure with the use of gender when naming objects. Furthermore he continues to say, “And as anyone whose mother tongue has a gender system will tell you, once the habit has taken hold, it is all but impossible to shake it off.” (449). My native language is Spanish, I became fluent in English when I was 5, and I came to learn French at the age of 14. When learning French at a much older age, I did notice how in English I didn’t have to express certain objects, scenes with precise and broad terms. For example, in French and Spanish there are separate gender pronouns for objects, unlike in English where the words “it” or “the” are usually used when speaking about the object. Obviously, the objects

Deutscher himself speaks of two ways most people use to describe directions. The two terms are referred as “egocentric” and “geographic” directions. Egocentric directions require verbal instructions that include some relative directions such as left, right, up, down, forwards, and backwards (450). On the other hand, geographic directions include descriptions such as, south, north, west, and east. Personally it is way easier for me and society to think of our relative directions to be much easier to describe in contrasts to having a constant compass in our minds. Using the terms left and right are the usual daily descriptions I use to almost everything. I find it almost impossible to understand and adapt to saying “on your southwest”, putting much thought and focus on the phrase I come to realize it is lower or bottom left. It is much easier to use the egocentric coordinates because it is much uncomplicated to adapt to since they are more visual (450). Deutscher speaks about an Australian language named, Guugu Yimithirr, that does not use the effortless description of directions using egocentric but rather uses cardinal directions. Guugu Yimithirr speakers use the cardinal directions for everything, whether it is moving from one side to the other, west to east, or simply just forgetting something on the table, “I left it on the southern edge of the western table.” (451) I wouldn’t