Does language shape thought?: Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time
Does language shape thought?: Mandarin and English speakers' conceptions of time
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DOI：
10.1006/cogp.2001.0748
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发表时间：
2001-08-01
影响因子：
2.6
通讯作者：
Boroditsky, L
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Boroditsky, L
你说的语言会影响你对世界的看法吗？这个问题在三个实验中被提出。英语和普通话谈论时间的方式不同--英语主要谈论时间，就好像它是水平的，而普通话通常也把时间描述为垂直的。这两种语言之间的差异反映在他们的说话者对时间的看法上。在一项研究中，说普通话的人甚至在思考英语时也倾向于垂直思考时间(说普通话的人比只看到水平排列的物体更快地确认3月比4月更早到来，而说英语的人则相反)。另一项研究表明，中英双语者对时间的垂直思考程度与他们刚开始学习英语的年龄有关。在另一个实验中，以英语为母语的人被教导用类似于普通话的垂直空间术语来谈论时间。在随后的测试中，这组讲英语的人表现出了与说普通话的人一样的垂直思考时间的偏见。结论是：(1)语言是形成抽象领域思维的有力工具；(2)母语在形成习惯性思维(例如，一个人如何思考时间)方面起着重要作用，但并不完全决定一个人在沃尔菲安意义上的思维。(C)2001年学术出版社。
Does the language you speak affect how you think about the world? This question is taken up in three experiments. English and Mandarin talk about time differently-English predominantly talks about time as if it were horizontal, while Mandarin also commonly describes time as vertical. This difference between the two languages is reflected in the way their speakers think about time. In one study, Mandarin speakers tended to think about time vertically even when they were thinking for English (Mandarin speakers were faster to confirm that March comes earlier than April if they had just seen a vertical array of objects than if they had just seen a horizontal array, and the reverse was true for English speakers). Another study showed that the extent to which Mandarin-English bilinguals think about time vertically is related to how old they were when they first began to learn English. In another experiment native English speakers were taught to talk about time using vertical spatial terms in a way similar to Mandarin. On a subsequent test, this group of English speakers showed the same bias to think about time vertically as was observed with Mandarin speakers. It is concluded that (1) language is a powerful tool in shaping thought about abstract domains and (2) one's native language plays an important role in shaping habitual thought (e.g., how one tends to think about time) but does not entirely determine one's thinking in the strong Whorfian sense. (C) 2001 Academic Press.