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Category Archives: Etymology

Does language shape thought? The results are in

A man of many language symbols

Image by Eyesplash via Flickr

A few posts ago I mentioned that The economist was running a live debate asking us, its readers to vote on whether we thought language shapes the way we think or not. After that over the next few days different scholars and linguists debated for or against the claim,  and we had the chance to agree or disagree with their view. Well now the results are in and all the arguments for both for and against are available to be read :-) so if you are interested please go ahead and read about it here:
http://www.economist.com/debate/debates/overview/190
.

Apologies for the short post I am away at the moment but someone just showed this to me and I thought I had to post it- happy break and I hope the new year will be good for everyone.

Thanks

 

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Does language shape your thought? Join the debate

The Economist

Image via Wikipedia

Once again the debate has resurfaced- does language shape thought? I think it will always be a question and each time both sides of the argument have some type of evidence. This time it is  The Economist who are currently running a live debate on this question. They allow for readers to vote on the website asking for people’s view on this somewhat complicated question. Two brilliant scholars represent each side, Dr. Lera Boroditsky [whom I have mentioned before on this blog] and she is for the motion that yes language does shape thought. In opposition is Prof. Mike Liberman a linguist at Pennsylvania, who sees that we shape language to a certain extent, and that language cannot shape the way we think.

I thought I’d share this with the readers as the voting ends tonight and the results will be announced on Thursday. If Linguistic Relativity interests you, this is where you need to go as there are recommendations on what to read, and a summary of the whole idea from both the linguistic and psychological perspectives.  Go and read and vote- enjoy.

The link-
http://www.economist.com/debate/days/view/626

 

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