The document discusses the relationship between language and thought, emphasizing that language habits influence thinking habits, as supported by the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and various studies. It highlights recent research on how language affects perception and cognitive processes, including color perception and agency construction. The overview includes findings from notable experts and references key experiments demonstrating that differences in language can result in differences in thought and memory.

1. Mirela C. C. Ramacciotti
14th Braz Tesol International Convention
May 2014

2. Overview
 Minds-on workshop
 Practical examples of language over thought
 Theoretical framework
 Academic background
 Examples
 Experiments and findings
 Conclusion
 Review of main content
 Assessment

3. ‘The limits of my language mean
the limits of my world’ L. Wittgenstein
Practical Example Practical Example
 Compass  Time

4. Theoretical Framework
Language habits create thinking habits (Sapir-Whorf hypotheses)
Thinking habits created via language operate independently of the
language used to think (ex.:there is/are)
The earlier one learns an L2, the less influenced his thinking
habits will be by his L1 (ex.: subj./verb)
Even without cultural differences, differences in language result in
differences in thought, i.e. language rules. (ex.:he/she/it)
In the absence of sensorial information, language rules over
thought (ex.:abstract concepts: time/ space/causality/
relationships)

5. Academic Background
• Benjamin Lee Whorf’s seminal work on Linguistic
Determinism (1956)
• overrulled by the work on color perception with the Dani
(New Guinea tribe) between 1972 and 1984 (Heider, 1972;
Rosch, 1972 and 1975; but Lucy & Shweder, 1979, Kay &
Kempton, 1984)
• Recent studies focusing on L1 thinking habits on L2
comprehension based on reaction time (Boroditsky &
Gaby, 2010; Fausey et al., 2010; Danziger & Ward, 2010)
• Linguistic mapping frequently evoked MAY become
habitual thought (Boroditsky, 2011)
• Age of acquisition (and NOT time of exposure) for L2 is
what influences thought (Boroditsky, 2001)

6. Experiments and Findings
 Language, learning, and color perception
Emre Özgen
Current Directions in Psychological Science 13 (3), 95-
98, 2004
 ‘language may indeed change color perception.
Speakers of languages with different color-name
repertoires show differences in the way they perceive
color’

7. Experiments and Findings
Constructing Agency: the Role of
Language
 Fausey, C. M., Long, B. L., Inamori, A., & Boroditsky,
L., Frontiers of Psychology, 2010; 1: 162.
 ‘English speakers remembered the agents of accidents
better than did Japanese speakers, as predicted from
patterns in language.’
 ‘Patterns in one’s linguistic environment may promote
and support how people instantiate agency in context.’

8. References
 Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought?: Mandarin and English speakers'
conceptions of time. Cognitive psychology, 43(1), 1-22.
 Boroditsky, L. (2011). How language shapes thought. Scientific American, 304(2), 62-65.
 Fausey, C. M., Long, B. L., Inamori, A., & Boroditsky, L. (2010). Constructing agency: the
role of language. Frontiers in psychology, 1.
 Heider, E. (1972). Universals in color naming and memory. Journal of Experimental
Psychology,93, 10–20.
 Kaufeldt, M. (Ed.). (2009). Begin with the brain: Orchestrating the learner-centered
classroom. SAGE
 Kay, P., & Kempton, W. (1984). What is the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis? American
Anthropologist,86, 65–79.
 Lucy, J., & Shweder, R. (1979). Whorf and his critics: Linguistic and nonlinguistic
influences on color memory. American Anthropologist, 81, 581–618.
 Özgen, E. (2004). Language, learning, and color perception. Current Directions in
Psychological Science, 13(3), 95-98.
 Rosch, E. (1975). Cognitive representations of semantic categories. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: General, 104, 192–233.
 Rosch, E. (1978). Principles of categorization. In R. Rosch & B. B. Lloyd (Eds.), Cognition
and categorization. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
 Whorf, B. L. (1956). The relation of habitual thought and behavior to language.
Language, thought and reality, 134-59.

9. Contact
 mirelaprof@uol.com.br
 Thank you!