We're speaking today with cognitive science professor Lera Boroditsky about language. Cholera and malnourishment await Somalis fleeing . Newer episodes are unlikely to have a transcript as it takes us a few weeks to process and edit each transcript. MCWHORTER: No, because LOL was an expression; it was a piece of language, and so you knew that its meaning was going to change. But I think that we should learn not to listen to people using natural language as committing errors because there's no such thing as making a mistake in your language if a critical mass of other people speaking your language are doing the same thing. GEACONE-CRUZ: It's a Sunday afternoon, and it's raining outside. There's not a bigger difference you could find than 100 percent of the measurement space. Shankar Vedantam uses science and storytelling to reveal the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, shape our choices and direct our relationships. Listen on the Reuters app. Imagine this. And it sounds a little bit abrupt and grabby like you're going to get something instead of being given. Evaluating Changes in Motivation, Values, and Well-being, by Kennon M. Sheldon and Lawrence S. Krieger, Behavioral Sciences & the Law, 2004. MCWHORTER: Yeah, I really do. It's part of a general running indication that everything's OK between you and the other person, just like one's expected to smile a little bit in most interactions. * Data source: directly measured on Listen Notes. Sometimes, life can feel like being stuck on a treadmill. It should just be, here is the natural way, then there's some things that you're supposed to do in public because that's the way it is, whether it's fair or not. It turns out, as you point out, that in common usage, literally literally means the opposite of literally. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. If you prefer to listen through a podcast app, here are links to our podcast on Apple, Spotify, and Stitcher. And what we find is that if you teach people that forks go with men grammatically in a language, they start to think of forks as being more masculine. And to our surprise, 78 percent of the time, we could predict the gender of the personification based on the grammatical gender of the noun in the artist's native language. When the con was exposed, its victims defended the con artists. GEACONE-CRUZ: It describes this feeling so perfectly in such a wonderfully packaged, encapsulated way. But if I give that same story to a Hebrew or an Arabic speaker, they would organize it from right to left. But if they were sitting facing north, they would lay out the story from right to left. But I don't think that it's always clear to us that language has to change in that things are going to come in that we're going to hear as intrusions or as irritating or as mistakes, despite the fact that that's how you get from, say, old Persian to modern Persian. There are different ways to be a psychologist. And they suggest that differences across languages do, in fact, predict some of these measures of gender equality across countries. For more on decision-making, check out our episode on how to make wiser choices. And MIT linguist Ken Hale, who's a renowned linguist, said that every time a language dies, it's the equivalent of a bomb being dropped on the Louvre. Now, in a lot of languages, you can't say that because unless you were crazy, and you went out looking to break your arm, and you succeeded - right? She once visited an aboriginal community in northern Australia and found the language they spoke forced her mind to work in new ways. How do certain memes go viral? Just go to the magnifying glass in the top right corner, click on it, and use the search function at the top of the page. Read the episode transcript. Whats going on here? Shankar Vedantam: This is Hidden Brain. And if people heard the sounds a little differently and produced them a little differently, if there were new meanings of words - very quickly whatever the original meaning was wouldn't be remembered. John, you've noted that humans have been using language for a very long time, but for most of that time language has been about talking. You know, I was trying to stay oriented because people were treating me like I was pretty stupid for not being oriented, and that hurt. BORODITSKY: Yeah, that's true. And they asked me all kinds of questions about them. Hidden Brain - You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose Hidden Brain Aug 2, 2021 You 2.0: Cultivating Your Purpose Play 51 min playlist_add Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the. And it's just too much of an effort, and you can't be bothered to do it, even though it's such a small thing. The authoritative record of NPRs programming is the audio record. Lots of languages make a distinction between things that are accidents and things that are intentional actions. They believe that their language reflects the true structure of the world. In this favorite 2021 episode, psychologistAdam Grantpushes back against the benefits of certainty, and describes the magic that unfolds when we challenge our own deeply-held beliefs. There was no such thing as looking up what it originally meant. All of these are very subjective things. Flight attendant Steven Slater slides from a plane after quitting. You may also use the Hidden Brain name in invitations sent to a small group of personal contacts for such purposes as a listening club or discussion forum. I'm Shankar Vedantam. You also see huge differences in other domains like number. Today in our Happiness 2.0 series, we revisit a favorite episode from 2020. And I can't help surmising that part of it is that the educated American has been taught and often well that you're not supposed to look down on people because of gender, because of race, because of ability. I know-uh (ph) is there, or something along the lines of babe-uh (ph). Whats going on here? VEDANTAM: If you're bilingual or you're learning a new language, you get what Jennifer experienced - the joy of discovering a phrase that helps you perfectly encapsulate a feeling or an experience. Now, many people hear that and they think, well, that's no good because now literally can mean its opposite. VEDANTAM: Languages seem to have different ways of communicating agency. VEDANTAM: If languages are shaped by the way people see the world, but they also shape how people see the world, what does this mean for people who are bilingual? How to Foster Perceived Partner Responsiveness: High-Quality LIstening is Key, by Guy Itzchakov, Harry Reis, and Netta Weinstein, Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 2021. And he started by asking Russian-speaking students to personify days of the week. VEDANTAM: One of the things I found really interesting is that the evolution of words and language is constant. He says that buying into false beliefs, in other words, deluding ourselves can . You can also connect directly with our sponsorship representative by emailing [emailprotected]. Many of us rush through our days, weeks, and lives, chasing goals, and just trying to get everything done. It's natural to want to run away from difficult emotions such as grief, anger and fear. So even if I'm speaking English, the distinctions that I've learned in speaking Russian, for example, are still active in my mind to some extent, but they're more active if I'm actually speaking Russian. VEDANTAM: The moment she heard it, Jennifer realized mendokusai was incredibly useful. Each language comprises the ideas that have been worked out in a culture over thousands of generations, and that is an incredible amount of cultural heritage and complexity of thought that disappears whenever a language dies. In the final episode of our "Mind Reading 2.0" series, we bring back one of our favorite conversations, with linguist Deborah Tannen. Whats going on here? In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. Language was talk. Copyright 2023 Steno. So what happens is that once literally comes to feel like it means really, people start using it in figurative constructions such as I was literally dying of thirst. ADAM COLE, BYLINE: (Singing) You put your southwest leg in, and you shake it all about. UNIDENTIFIED WOMAN #3: (Speaking foreign language). Perceived Partner Responsiveness Scale (PPRS), by Harry T. Reis et. If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page. Transcript Speaker 1 00:00:00 this is hidden brain. Writing has come along relatively recently. Please do not republish our logo, name or content digitally or distribute to more than 10 people without written permission. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. We all have to make certain choices in life, such as where to live and how to earn a living. If you still cant find the episode, try looking through our most recent shows on our homepage. And what he found was kids who were learning Hebrew - this is a language that has a lot of gender loading in it - figured out whether they were a boy or a girl about a year sooner than kids learning Finnish, which doesn't have a lot of gender marking in the language. And to arrive in a new place where you can't tell a joke and can't express an idea - oh, it's just really painful because you feel like your whole self is hiding inside and no one can see it. This week on Hidden Brain, we revisit a favorite episode exploring what this culture means Jesse always wanted to fall in love. He says there are things we can do to make sure our choices align with our deepest values. You can find the transcript for most episodes of Hidden Brain on our website. MCWHORTER: Exactly. That kind of detail may not appear. You're also not going to do algebra. You can't touch time. JERRY SEINFELD: (As Jerry Seinfeld) The second button literally makes or breaks the shirt. We talk with psychologist Iris Mauss, who explains why happiness can seem more el, When we want something very badly, it can be hard to see warning signs that might be obvious to other people. So we've done a lot of studies looking at how speakers of Spanish and German and Russian actually think about objects that have opposite grammatical genders. (Speaking Japanese). ), The Sourcebook of Listening Research: Methodology and Measures, 2018. This week, we kick off a month-long series we're calling Happiness 2.0. Go behind the scenes, see what Shankar is reading and find more useful resources and links. Special thanks to Adam Cole, who wrote and performed our rendition of "The Hokey Pokey." He's a professor of English and comparative literature at Columbia University and the author of the book "Words On The Move: Why English Won't - And Can't - Sit Still (Like, Literally).". We don't want to be like that. MCWHORTER: Language is a parade, and nobody sits at a parade wishing that everybody would stand still. In the United States, we often praise people with strong convictions, and look down on those who express doubt or hesitation. Interpersonal Chemistry: What Is It, How Does It Emerge, and How Does it Operate? We call this language Gumbuzi. As someone who works in media, I often find that people who can write well are often people who know how to think well, so I often equate clarity of writing with clarity of thought. VEDANTAM: It took just one week of living in Japan for Jennifer to pick up an important new term. Official Website Airs on: SUN 7pm-8pm 55:27 Happiness 2.0: The Reset Button Feb 27 Many of us rush through our lives, chasing goals and just trying to get everything done. So when I ask you to, say, imagine a man walking down the street, well, in your imagery, you're going to have some details completed and some will be left out. Those sorts things tend to start with women. This week, we revisit a favorite episode from 2021, bringing you two stories about how easy it can be to believe in a false reality even when the facts dont back us up. She shows how our conversational styles can cause We all know casual sex isn't about love. Whats going on here? But what happens when these feelings catch up with us? Many of us believe that hard work and persistence are the key to achieving our goals. And then question 21 was, is this person a man or a woman? Toula and Ian's different backgrounds become apparent on one of their very first dates. Think back to the last time someone convinced you to do something you didn't want to do, or to spend money you didn't want to spend. Lera said there's still a lot of research to be done on this. So I think it's something that is quite easy for humans to learn if you just have a reason to want to do it. You-uh (ph). People do need to be taught what the socially acceptable forms are. No matter how hard you try to feel happier, you end up back where you started. Researcher Elizabeth Dunn helps us map out Having a sense of purpose can be a buffer against the challenges we all face at various stages of life. In English, actually, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, I broke my arm. VEDANTAM: In the English-speaking world, she goes by Lera Boroditsky. - so one skull but two different minds, and you shift from one to the other. There was no way of transcribing an approximation of what people said and nobody would have thought of doing it. Many people have this intuition that, oh, I could never learn that; I could never survive in a community like this. Each generation hears things and interprets things slightly differently from the previous one. That's the way words are, too. VEDANTAM: I asked Lera how describing the word chair or the word bridge as masculine or feminine changes the way that speakers of different languages think about those concepts. So in terms of the size of differences, there are certainly effects that are really, really big. Transcript - How language shapes the way we think by Lera Boroditsky.docx, The Singapore Quality Award requires organisations to show outstanding results, The following lots of Commodity Z were available for sale during the year, b The authors identify 5 types of misinformation in the abstract but discuss 7, 17 Chow N Asian value and aged care Geriatr Gerontol Int 20044521 5 18 Chow NWS, Writing Results and Discussion Example.docx, A 6 month old infant weighing 15 lb is admitted with a diagnosis of dehydration, ng_Question_-_Assessment_1_-_Proposing_Evidence-Based_Change.doc, The Social Security checks the Government sends to grandmothers are considered A, 03 If a covered member participates on the clients attest engagement or is an, AURETR143 Student Assessment - Theory v1.1.docx. Purpose can also boost our health and longevity. So that, again, is a huge difference. UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking foreign language). Everyone wants to be loved and appreciated. So in English, I might say that Sam (ph) broke the flute.