Thinking and Language Key Term Linguistic determinism Whorfs

Thinking and Language

Key Term • Linguistic determinism- Whorf’s hypothesis that language determines the way we think.

Language Influences Thinking • According to Whorf’s linguistic determinism hypothesis, different languages impose different conception of reality. • Whorf’s hypothesis would probably not occur to people who speak only one language but to those who speak two dissimilar languages, such as English and Japanese. • He feels a person thinks differently in different languages. • Michael Ross, Elaine Xun, and Anne Wilson demonstrated this by inviting China-born bilingual University of Waterloo students to describe themselves in English or Chinese. • When describing themselves in English, their self-descriptions were typically Canadian: they expressed mostly positive self statements and moods. • When responding in Chinese, they were typically Chinese: they reported more agreement with Chinese values and roughly equal positive and negative self-statements and moods.

Thinking in Images • We often think in Images. • For example, Pianist Lou Chi Kung showed the value of thinking in images. 1 year after placing second in 1958 Tchaikousky piano competition, Lou was imprisoned during China’s cultural revolution. After his release. After seven years without touching a piano, he was back on tour, the critics judging his musicianship better than ever. How did he continue to develop without practice? “ I did practice” said Lou, “everyday, I rehearsed every piece I had ever played, note by note, in mind. ”