The Effect of Language on Our Conceptualization of the World

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The term wardrobe malfunction was born after the Super Bowl halftime show in which Janet Jackson's breasts were partially exposed on national television. The FCC tried to find CBS $550,000 for the indecency and people were so outraged it quickly became the most T-vode event of all time. Even though you have this feeling like I can see what happened, I can see it with my own eyes, the way that we describe things makes a real difference.

What direction does time point in? None, really, although some people might subconsciously put the past on the left and the future on the right, or the past behind themselves and the future in front, or many other possible orientations. What feels natural to you depends in large degree on the native language you speak, and how it talks about time. This is a clue to a more general phenomenon, how language shapes the way we think. Lera Boroditsky is one of the world’s experts on this phenomenon. She uses how different languages construe time and space (as well as other things) to help tease out the way our brains make sense of the world.

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Lera Boroditsky received her Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Stanford University. She is currently associate professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego. She serves as Editor in Chief of the journal Frontiers in Cultural Psychology. She has been named one of 25 Visionaries changing the world by the Utne Reader, and is also a Searle Scholar, a McDonnell scholar, recipient of an NSF Career award, and an APA Distinguished Scientist lecturer.

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