Paper 4 Question 2: Can Language Shape How We Think?
The text from a Stanford University online magazine is concentrated on Lera Boroditsky, a Stanford researcher, who has found evidence to prove that language shapes the way we think. This is a groundbreaking discovery, as there have been numerous debates and studies about how language interacts with thought. This discovery would advance the hypothesis that language influences self-identity and how we perceive the world around us. Lera Boroditsky’s work is supported by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis. This idea was developed by Benjamin Lee Whorf and Edward Sapir in 1929, but became highly popular in the 1950s. This hypothesis supports the idea that the lexis and grammar of a language directly impacts and molds the thoughts and worldview that a person has. This idea can simply be explained by comparing the Inuit tribe’s language to that of the English language when talking about the word “snow.” In English, we only h...
