
Lera Boroditsky: How Language Shapes Thought
Long Now
The Arbitrariness of Gender in Languages
There seems to be a whole lot of arbitrariness in language, says Michael Lyons. He and his colleagues compared grammatical genders across European languages. They found correlation for animal genders but no correlation for artifacts. The same word adopted about the same time in two different languages is assigned gender based on principles of convenience.
00:00
Transcript
Play full episode
Remember Everything You Learn from Podcasts
Save insights instantly, chat with episodes, and build lasting knowledge - all powered by AI.