Lera Broditsky How Does Our Language Shape The Way We Think Summary

Throughout history, language has been a significant part of how humans are able to communicate with each other. Communication is a vital part to the way humans live and even survive with each other. Languages are all unique, and they can possibly be a factor in the way humans solve problems or think in general. In the essay “How Does Our Language Shape the Way We Think?,” Lera Boroditsky delves into this complex topic. She specifically focuses on the topic of language and how people’s thinking can actually change depending on the language that they speak. To effectively prove her argument, she has conducted many experiments with her students and colleges that test the way that groups of people complete tasks differently based on their language.

Boroditsky’s main thesis is that the language people speak affects that way that people think about color, time, space, and objects. She proves this through the use of a plethora of techniques such as rhetorical devices, literary devices, and in depth descriptions of her experiments.
Rhetorical devices such as ethos, logos, and pathos are all very important strategies that are appealed to throughout the reading of Boroditsky’s essay. An appeal to ethos is especially evident when Boroditsky mentions that her experiments took place in her laboratories at Stanford and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Boroditsky 3), which are both accredited universities. Her credibility is very important because it forces the reader to subconsciously trust the information that they receive, and consequently, the reader believes what she is saying. Pathos is also an immensely important technique that is essentially a direct appeal to the reader’s emotions. It is a very common technique that can be found throughout this essay and many others. For example, in this essay the author is constantly trying to make the reader feel a certain way, and she is especially trying to influence the reader to agree with her. She does this many ways but mainly by asking rhetorical questions that she is able to answer and back with experimental data. This appeal to the audience’s emotions is an important part of rhetoric that a writer should take advantage of because it reinforces the argument they are defending. Next, appeals to logos can be found throughout the reading as well. In the explanations of Boroditsky’s experiments, the author uses the experiments’ results to prove her hypothesis, and to show the readers why she is correct. Appeals to ethos, logos, and pathos, when used correctly, can be very beneficial for both the writing and the reader of a work. As far as the function they serve to help Boroditsky’s essay, these are all techniques that when used correctly, can be used to help the author prove their point, ensure that the readers know that the author is credible, and make their readers feel whichever way they want them to feel.
Literary techniques such as appropriate word choice, rhetorical questions, and imagery are all very important aspects of Boroditsky’s essay.

Throughout her essay, Boroditsky uses language that is not very complex but because she knows the audience that she is trying to appeal to, she occasionally uses more complex terms that her audience can understand. Boroditsky uses various rhetorical questions such as “Do the languages we speak shape the way we see the world, the way we think, and the way we live our lives?” (Boroditsky 3) to bring up important parts of her argument or to introduce a new argument. use of rhetorical questions is greatly beneficial towards proving her point because she directly answers questions that readers would probably ask in relation to her point. When Boroditsky gives background for her directional experiment, she explains the village life of the Kuuk Thaayorre: “Follow me to Pormpuraaw, a small Aboriginal community on the western edge of Cape York, in northern Australia” (Boroditsky 5). This is really important in writing because it first of all, makes the reader more interested, but it also created a better mental image for the reader so they can understand what is being said more easily. These, and many other, literary techniques are all very important aspects of the work as a whole, and all help Boroditsky prove her argument that language is related to

thought.
Boroditsky, in order to prove her thesis, conducted various experiments. These experiments tested the psychological tendencies that various groups of people have towards space, color, time, and objects in relation to the language that they spoke. First, the way people think about space was tested. This experiment tested a group of Australian aboriginals called Kuuk Thaayorre that instead of using words such as left and right to describe direction, use cardinal directions. The group and other groups from different countries were given a set of pictures that show a chronological event happening. The Americans test group put them from left to right, the Mandarin group organized them from up to down, the Arab group ordered it from right to left, but the Australian group ordered them from east to west. The groups all mirrored their language and put the pictures in the same order as their language reads according to the speakers. This showed the difference in the thought process of the different cultures and languages. Another experiment that was conducted showed how language affects duration. During the experiment, English speakers were taught different ways to speak based on languages such as Greek, and more specifically, the way that the Greeks use metaphors to describe duration. The English speakers actually started completing tasks the same way that native speakers of their new languages would have done them, thus almost entirely proving that language affects thinking. They concluded that when you learn a language, you’re learning a new way of talking and thinking. In every language, there are a set of rules that the speakers have to follow in order to correctly speak the language. One rule that only some languages have is in relation to assigning gender to certain objects. Boroditsky tested whether or not this gender assignment of inanimate objects carries over into real life. For example when Spanish speakers were asked to describe a key, which is feminine in their language, they used characteristically feminine words. Conversely, when German speakers were asked to describe a key, which is masculine in their language, they used characteristically masculine words. This can even translate into art forms, such as painting, because if an object is personified, it will usually be portrayed by whatever gender it was assigned in that language. All of these experiments helped prove Boroditsky’s thesis.
Lera Boroditsky attempted to draw a connection between the language humans speak and the way that they think. She successfully showed the connection and proved that language even directly affects the way that people think. She did this by using rhetorical strategies, literary techniques, and thorough explanations of relevant experiments. Language is a very important aspect of the way that humans communicate, survive, and think.