The other evening we went to a talk sponsored by SAR, Lera Borditsky, (1976–) was the speaker. She was born in Belarus and went to university in this country. Currently, she is an Associate Professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, and is known for her research in the fields of language and cognition. Her theme and her passion, as it has been for many years now, was how language shapes thought, which in her words, “Do the languages we speak shape the way we think.”
It is a subject I had not given much thought to but the more I cogitated the more fascinating it became. I learned German in self-defense. My parents spoke only German to each other and only English to me… so what were they saying behind my back? That is a challenge for any kid! My parents also spoke French, since after leaving Germany they spent 5 years in France , so I picked up more and more phrases. Today, there are things I cannot express in English and my wife has had to learn many of the phrases as well. Is it because the thought cannot be expressed in English, yes, unless you go into a long circumlocution.
Dr. Boroditsky has given her public lecture on this subject for seven or eight years, and though fascinated by the subject, I had not heard about her work before. She starts out by quoting Charlemagne who said, “To have a second language is to have a second soul” and immediately points out that Shakespeare contradicted him by having Juliette say, “A Rose by any other name would smell as sweet” or we sometimes state that a rose by any other name is still a rose.
While I knew quite naturally that there were many languages, that their number hovered around 7,000 was a surprise. Then I realized in New Mexico alone we have a host of languages since each Native tribe or pueblo have their own language slightly or greatly different from the rest.
We learned further that while we may speak of our right leg or left leg, there are aboriginal tribes in Australia that refer to their north leg or their south leg. In tests with one tribe, whichever way the aborigines were turned they were consistent as to North and South! Must be wonderful not having to ask directions. One thing that Professor Borditsky did not speak of was how does body language play into a conversation. Where would a Frenchman be without his hands?
Speaking German I know if one gives the time as “halb drei” (translated 3:30) it actually means 30 minutes before 3 or 2:30. It took me years to learn that and I still checked myself before writing now!
To confront the issue head on Dr. Boroditsky brings up how eye-witness memory differs depending on the language one speaks. She showed English and Spanish speakers images of events, like a person breaking a vase on purpose or by accident. When it came to descriptions of intentional acts their memory for the details and the prime cause they were pretty much the same. In the case of accidental events, however, the English described the person involved more accurately than the Spanish. The question was, did that have something to do with the grammatical way they described the event: “Se ro tó el florero”, which is literally “The vase broke itself”.
I came away from the talk not convinced but feeling there are some very intriguing possibilities that could change the way we communicate depending on what our goals in a discussion are. This became even clearer after the lecture when it was time for questions. I asked how do U.N. translators handle this difficult situation. The reply was less than satisfying. Dr. Boroditsky answered, “It is worse than you think, every translator is superbly trained but only to translate from one language to another so the statement is translated twice before it is translated into someone’s native language.” A statement in Greek might be translated in French by one translator then again from French to English by another.
Obviously, I have picked up on a very complicated subject and if you want to learn a lot more I refer you to Lera Boroditsky on the Web… enjoy!
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