So, I'll be speaking to you using language ... because I can. This is one these magical abilities that we humans have. We can transmit really complicated thoughts to one another. So what I'm doing right now is, I'm making sounds with my mouth as I'm exhaling. I'm making tones and hisses and puffs, and those are creating air vibrations in the air. Those air vibrations are traveling to you, they're hitting your eardrums, and then your brain takes those vibrations from your eardrums and transforms them into thoughts. I hope.
Vouvos falar usando a linguaxe..., porque podo. Esta é unha desas habilidades máxicas que temos os humanos. Podemos transmitirlles pensamentos moi complexos a outros. O que estou facendo agora mesmo é facer sons coa boca mentres expiro. Fago tons, asubíos e sopros e todo iso crea vibracións no aire. Esas vibracións no aire viaxan cara a vós, acadan os vosos tímpanos, e logo o voso cerebro recolle esas vibracións nos tímpanos e transfórmaas en pensamentos. Iso espero.
(Laughter)
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I hope that's happening. So because of this ability, we humans are able to transmit our ideas across vast reaches of space and time. We're able to transmit knowledge across minds. I can put a bizarre new idea in your mind right now. I could say, "Imagine a jellyfish waltzing in a library while thinking about quantum mechanics."
Espero que ocorra iso. Así que, grazas a esta habilidade, os humanos somos quen de transmitir ideas a través do espazo e do tempo. Somos capaces de transmitir coñecemento a través das mentes. Podo poñer unha idea nova e estraña na vosa mente agora mesmo. Podería dicir: "Imaxinade unha medusa bailando un valse nunha biblioteca mentres pensa en mecánica cuántica."
(Laughter)
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Now, if everything has gone relatively well in your life so far, you probably haven't had that thought before.
Se todo vos foi relativamente ben na vida ata agora, pode que nunca pensarades niso antes.
(Laughter)
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But now I've just made you think it, through language.
Pero agora fíxenvolo pensar, a través da linguaxe.
Now of course, there isn't just one language in the world, there are about 7,000 languages spoken around the world. And all the languages differ from one another in all kinds of ways. Some languages have different sounds, they have different vocabularies, and they also have different structures -- very importantly, different structures. That begs the question: Does the language we speak shape the way we think? Now, this is an ancient question. People have been speculating about this question forever. Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor, said, "To have a second language is to have a second soul" -- strong statement that language crafts reality. But on the other hand, Shakespeare has Juliet say, "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." Well, that suggests that maybe language doesn't craft reality.
Por suposto, non hai só unha lingua no mundo, fálanse ao redor de 7000 linguas arredor del. E todas as linguas difiren unhas doutras de xeitos moi distintos. Algunhas linguas teñen sons diferentes, teñen vocabularios diferentes, e teñen diferentes estruturas, moi importante, diferentes estruturas. Iso implica a pregunta: A linguaxe que falamos conforma o xeito en que pensamos? É unha pregunta moi antiga. A xente sempre especulou sobre esta cuestión. Carlomagno, emperador do Sacro Imperio Romano, dixo: "Ter unha segunda lingua é ter unha segunda alma" unha opinión categórica de que a lingua modela a realidade. Pero, por outra parte, Shakespeare fixo que Xulieta dixera: "Que hai nun nome? Unha rosa con outro nome ule igual de ben." Ben, isto suxire que talvez a lingua non modela a realidade.
These arguments have gone back and forth for thousands of years. But until recently, there hasn't been any data to help us decide either way. Recently, in my lab and other labs around the world, we've started doing research, and now we have actual scientific data to weigh in on this question.
Estes argumentos estiveron aí durante miles de anos. Pero ata hai pouco, non había ningún dato que nos axudase a tomar partido. Hai pouco, no meu laboratorio e noutros polo mundo, comezamos a investigar e agora temos datos científicos reais para avaliar a cuestión.
So let me tell you about some of my favorite examples. I'll start with an example from an Aboriginal community in Australia that I had the chance to work with. These are the Kuuk Thaayorre people. They live in Pormpuraaw at the very west edge of Cape York. What's cool about Kuuk Thaayorre is, in Kuuk Thaayorre, they don't use words like "left" and "right," and instead, everything is in cardinal directions: north, south, east and west. And when I say everything, I really mean everything. You would say something like, "Oh, there's an ant on your southwest leg." Or, "Move your cup to the north-northeast a little bit." In fact, the way that you say "hello" in Kuuk Thaayorre is you say, "Which way are you going?" And the answer should be, "North-northeast in the far distance. How about you?"
Vouvos contar algúns dos meus exemplos preferidos. Comezarei co dunha comunidade aborixe en Australia coa que puiden traballar. Estes son os Kuuk Thaayorre. Viven en Pormpuraaw, no límite oeste do cabo York. O que máis me gusta deles é que en Kuuk Thaayorre non usan palabras como "esquerda" e "dereita", en lugar diso, todo se sitúa en puntos cardinais: norte, sur, leste e oeste. E cando digo todo, digo todo de verdade. Poden dicir algo como: "Eh, tes unha formiga na perna do suroeste." Ou "Move a cunca un pouco cara ao nor-nordeste." De feito, "ola" en Kuuk Thaayorre dise: "En que dirección vas?" E a resposta debería ser: "Nor-nordeste ao lonxe. E ti?"
So imagine as you're walking around your day, every person you greet, you have to report your heading direction.
Así que imaxinade que ides paseando e a cada persoa que saudades, tedes que dicirlle en que dirección ides.
(Laughter)
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But that would actually get you oriented pretty fast, right? Because you literally couldn't get past "hello," if you didn't know which way you were going. In fact, people who speak languages like this stay oriented really well. They stay oriented better than we used to think humans could. We used to think that humans were worse than other creatures because of some biological excuse: "Oh, we don't have magnets in our beaks or in our scales." No; if your language and your culture trains you to do it, actually, you can do it. There are humans around the world who stay oriented really well.
Pero iso obrigaríavos a orientarvos bastante rápido, non si? Porque non poderiades pasar dicindo só: "Ola", se non soubésedes en que dirección iades. De feito, os que falan linguas como esta oriéntanse moi ben. Fano mellor do que pensabamos que podían facelo os humanos. Pensabamos que os humanos eran peores que outros animais por algunha escusa biolóxica: "Non temos imáns no bico ou na pel." Non, se a vosa linguaxe e a vosa cultura vos adestran para iso, podedes facelo. Hai humanos que se orientan moi ben.
And just to get us in agreement about how different this is from the way we do it, I want you all to close your eyes for a second and point southeast.
E só para que vexades o diferente que é a como o facemos nós, quero que pechedes os ollos por un segundo e apuntedes ao sueste.
(Laughter)
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Keep your eyes closed. Point. OK, so you can open your eyes. I see you guys pointing there, there, there, there, there ... I don't know which way it is myself --
Pechade os ollos. Apuntade. Ben, podedes abrir os ollos. Vexo xente apuntando alí, alí, alí... Nin eu mesma sei onde está.
(Laughter)
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You have not been a lot of help.
Non me axudastes moito.
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So let's just say the accuracy in this room was not very high. This is a big difference in cognitive ability across languages, right? Where one group -- very distinguished group like you guys -- doesn't know which way is which, but in another group, I could ask a five-year-old and they would know.
Digamos que a precisión nesta sala non foi moita. Hai unha gran diferenza de capacidade cognitiva entre linguas. Mentres un grupo, un tan distinguido coma vós, non sabe que dirección é cal, noutro grupo, ata o sabería un neno de 5 anos se llo pregunto.
(Laughter)
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There are also really big differences in how people think about time. So here I have pictures of my grandfather at different ages. And if I ask an English speaker to organize time, they might lay it out this way, from left to right. This has to do with writing direction. If you were a speaker of Hebrew or Arabic, you might do it going in the opposite direction, from right to left.
Tamén hai diferenzas moi grandes en como a xente pensa sobre o tempo. Aquí teño imaxes do meu avó a diferentes idades. E se lle pido a un falante de inglés que as ordene temporalmente, podería aliñalas así, de esquerda a dereita. Ten que ver coa dirección da escrita. Pero para un falante de hebreo ou árabe, a dirección sería a contraria, de dereita a esquerda.
But how would the Kuuk Thaayorre, this Aboriginal group I just told you about, do it? They don't use words like "left" and "right." Let me give you hint. When we sat people facing south, they organized time from left to right. When we sat them facing north, they organized time from right to left. When we sat them facing east, time came towards the body. What's the pattern? East to west, right? So for them, time doesn't actually get locked on the body at all, it gets locked on the landscape. So for me, if I'm facing this way, then time goes this way, and if I'm facing this way, then time goes this way. I'm facing this way, time goes this way -- very egocentric of me to have the direction of time chase me around every time I turn my body. For the Kuuk Thaayorre, time is locked on the landscape. It's a dramatically different way of thinking about time.
Como o farían os Kuuk Thaayorre, este grupo aborixe do que vos falei? Non usan palabras como "esquerda" e "dereita". Vouvos dar unha pista. Cando sentamos a xente cara ao sur, organizan o tempo de esquerda a dereita. Cando os sentamos cara ao norte, organízano de dereita a esquerda. Cando os sentamos de cara ao leste, o tempo vén cara a eles. Cal é o padrón? Leste a oeste, non? Así que para eles, o tempo non se aloxa no corpo, alóxase na paisaxe. Para min, se me sitúo así, o tempo vai así, e se me sitúo así, o tempo vai así. Sitúome así, o tempo vai así, é moi egocéntrico facer que a dirección do tempo me siga cada vez que xiro o corpo. Para os Kuuk Thaayorre, o tempo está na paisaxe. É un xeito moi diferente de pensar sobre o tempo.
Here's another really smart human trick. Suppose I ask you how many penguins are there. Well, I bet I know how you'd solve that problem if you solved it. You went, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight." You counted them. You named each one with a number, and the last number you said was the number of penguins. This is a little trick that you're taught to use as kids. You learn the number list and you learn how to apply it. A little linguistic trick. Well, some languages don't do this, because some languages don't have exact number words. They're languages that don't have a word like "seven" or a word like "eight." In fact, people who speak these languages don't count, and they have trouble keeping track of exact quantities. So, for example, if I ask you to match this number of penguins to the same number of ducks, you would be able to do that by counting. But folks who don't have that linguistic trick can't do that.
Aquí hai outro truco humano moi bo. Supoñede que vos pregunto cantos pingüíns hai. Aposto a que sei como resolvestes o problema, se o fixestes. Fixestes: "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8." Contástelos. Nomeástelos cun número, e o último número que dixestes era o número de pingüíns. Este é un truquiño que nos ensinaron de pequenos. Aprendestes a lista de números e aprendestes como aplicala. Un truquiño lingüístico. Algunhas linguas non fan isto, algunhas linguas non teñen palabras para os números. Hai linguas que non teñen unha palabra como "sete" ou unha palabra como "oito". De feito, os falantes destas linguas non contan, e teñen problemas para manexar cantidades exactas. Por exemplo, se vos pido que fagades coincidir os pingüíns co mesmo número de patos, poderiades facelo contando. Pero a xente que non ten ese truquiño lingüístico non pode.
Languages also differ in how they divide up the color spectrum -- the visual world. Some languages have lots of words for colors, some have only a couple words, "light" and "dark." And languages differ in where they put boundaries between colors. So, for example, in English, there's a word for blue that covers all of the colors that you can see on the screen, but in Russian, there isn't a single word. Instead, Russian speakers have to differentiate between light blue, "goluboy," and dark blue, "siniy." So Russians have this lifetime of experience of, in language, distinguishing these two colors. When we test people's ability to perceptually discriminate these colors, what we find is that Russian speakers are faster across this linguistic boundary. They're faster to be able to tell the difference between a light and dark blue. And when you look at people's brains as they're looking at colors -- say you have colors shifting slowly from light to dark blue -- the brains of people who use different words for light and dark blue will give a surprised reaction as the colors shift from light to dark, as if, "Ooh, something has categorically changed," whereas the brains of English speakers, for example, that don't make this categorical distinction, don't give that surprise, because nothing is categorically changing.
As linguas tamén difiren en como dividen o espectro das cores, o mundo visual. Algunhas teñen moitas palabras para as cores, outras só teñen un par: "claro" e "escuro". E hai linguas que difiren en onde poñen os límites entre cores. Por exemplo, en inglés hai unha palabra para o azul que cobre todas as cores que vedes na pantalla, pero en ruso, non hai unha soa palabra. Os falantes de ruso teñen que diferenciar entre azul claro, "goluboy", e azul escuro "siniy". Os rusos teñen toda unha vida de experiencia de diferenciar, na lingua, estas dúas cores. Cando examinamos a capacidade para diferenciar esas cores, vemos que os falantes de ruso son máis rápidos nesta fronteira lingüística. Son máis rápidos ao diferenciar entre azul claro e escuro. E cando vemos o cerebro das persoas mentres miran cores, se poñemos cores que cambian lentamente de azul claro a escuro, os cerebros de quen usa palabras distintas para azul claro e escuro mostran unha reacción sorprendente cando as cores cambian, algo como "Oh, algo cambiou totalmente", pero os cerebros de falantes de inglés, por exemplo, que non fan esa distinción, non mostran esa sorpresa, porque nada cambiou totalmente.
Languages have all kinds of structural quirks. This is one of my favorites. Lots of languages have grammatical gender; every noun gets assigned a gender, often masculine or feminine. And these genders differ across languages. So, for example, the sun is feminine in German but masculine in Spanish, and the moon, the reverse. Could this actually have any consequence for how people think? Do German speakers think of the sun as somehow more female-like, and the moon somehow more male-like? Actually, it turns out that's the case. So if you ask German and Spanish speakers to, say, describe a bridge, like the one here -- "bridge" happens to be grammatically feminine in German, grammatically masculine in Spanish -- German speakers are more likely to say bridges are "beautiful," "elegant" and stereotypically feminine words. Whereas Spanish speakers will be more likely to say they're "strong" or "long," these masculine words.
As linguas teñen distintas peculiaridades estruturais. Esta é das miñas favoritas. Moitas linguas teñen xénero gramatical, cada nome ten asignado un xénero, a miúdo masculino ou feminino. E estes xéneros difiren segundo a lingua. Por exemplo, o sol é feminino en alemán pero masculino en español, e a lúa ao revés. Podería ter isto consecuencias en como pensa a xente? Os alemáns pensan no sol como en alguén máis feminino, e na lúa como máis masculina? Pois resulta que así é. Se lles preguntades a falantes de alemán e español que describan unha ponte, coma esta, "ponte" é gramaticalmente feminina en alemán, e masculina en español, os falantes de alemán tenden máis a dicir que as pontes son bonitas, elegantes, palabras topicamente femininas, mentres que os de español tenden máis a dicir que son fortes ou longas, palabras masculinas.
(Laughter)
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Languages also differ in how they describe events, right? You take an event like this, an accident. In English, it's fine to say, "He broke the vase." In a language like Spanish, you might be more likely to say, "The vase broke," or, "The vase broke itself." If it's an accident, you wouldn't say that someone did it. In English, quite weirdly, we can even say things like, "I broke my arm." Now, in lots of languages, you couldn't use that construction unless you are a lunatic and you went out looking to break your arm -- (Laughter) and you succeeded. If it was an accident, you would use a different construction.
As linguas tamén difiren en como describen sucesos. Collemos un suceso coma este, un accidente. En inglés, está ben dicir: "El rompeu o vaso." Nunha lingua como o español, probablemente diriades: "O vaso rompeu." ou "O vaso rompeuse." Se foi un accidente, non dirías que alguén o causou. En inglés, é raro, incluso podemos dicir: "Rompín o meu brazo." En moitas linguas, non poderiades usar esa construción a menos que fósedes uns aluados que andan por aí intentando romper o brazo... E o conseguirades. Se fose un accidente, usariades unha construción diferente. Isto ten consecuencias.
Now, this has consequences. So, people who speak different languages will pay attention to different things, depending on what their language usually requires them to do. So we show the same accident to English speakers and Spanish speakers, English speakers will remember who did it, because English requires you to say, "He did it; he broke the vase." Whereas Spanish speakers might be less likely to remember who did it if it's an accident, but they're more likely to remember that it was an accident. They're more likely to remember the intention. So, two people watch the same event, witness the same crime, but end up remembering different things about that event. This has implications, of course, for eyewitness testimony. It also has implications for blame and punishment. So if you take English speakers and I just show you someone breaking a vase, and I say, "He broke the vase," as opposed to "The vase broke," even though you can witness it yourself, you can watch the video, you can watch the crime against the vase, you will punish someone more, you will blame someone more if I just said, "He broke it," as opposed to, "It broke." The language guides our reasoning about events.
A xente que fala linguas diferentes pon a atención en cousas diferentes dependendo das necesidades da súa lingua. Así que lles amosamos o mesmo accidente a falantes de inglés e de español, os falantes de inglés lembrarán quen o fixo, porque o inglés esixe que digas: "El o fixo, el rompeu o vaso." Mentres que os de español, tenden menos a lembrar quen o fixo se foi un accidente, pero tenden máis a lembrar que foi un accidente. Tenden máis a lembrar a intención. Dúas persoas ven o mesmo suceso, son testemuñas do mesmo delito, pero lembran cousas diferentes dese suceso. Isto ten implicacións no caso de testemuñas oculares. Tamén ten implicacións ao asignar culpas e castigos. Se colledes falantes de inglés e lles mostro alguén rompendo un vaso, e digo: "El rompeu o vaso" fronte a "O vaso rompeu", aínda que o vexan, poidan ver o vídeo, poidan ver o que se lle fixo ao vaso, castigarán máis alguén, culparán máis alguén se digo: "El rompeuno." no canto de "Rompeu". A lingua guía o noso razoamento sobre os sucesos.
Now, I've given you a few examples of how language can profoundly shape the way we think, and it does so in a variety of ways. So language can have big effects, like we saw with space and time, where people can lay out space and time in completely different coordinate frames from each other. Language can also have really deep effects -- that's what we saw with the case of number. Having count words in your language, having number words, opens up the whole world of mathematics. Of course, if you don't count, you can't do algebra, you can't do any of the things that would be required to build a room like this or make this broadcast, right? This little trick of number words gives you a stepping stone into a whole cognitive realm.
Deivos un par de exemplos de como a lingua pode modelar a forma en que pensamos, e faino de moitas maneiras. Así, a lingua pode ter grandes efectos, como vimos no espazo e no tempo, onde a xente pode ordenar o tempo e o espazo en marcos diferentes completamente uns doutros. A lingua pode ter efectos profundos, é o caso que vimos cos números. Ter palabras para contar na vosa lingua, ter palabras número, abre o mundo das matemáticas. Claro, se non contades, non tedes álxebra, non podedes facer ningunha das cousas que cómpren para construír unha sala así ou para facer esta emisión, non? Este truquiño das palabras número dávos un punto de apoio para un reino cognitivo total.
Language can also have really early effects, what we saw in the case of color. These are really simple, basic, perceptual decisions. We make thousands of them all the time, and yet, language is getting in there and fussing even with these tiny little perceptual decisions that we make. Language can have really broad effects. So the case of grammatical gender may be a little silly, but at the same time, grammatical gender applies to all nouns. That means language can shape how you're thinking about anything that can be named by a noun. That's a lot of stuff.
A lingua tamén ten efectos temperáns, como vimos no caso da cor. Son decisións moi simples, básicas, de percepción. Tomamos miles continuamente, e aínda así, a lingua entremétese e enlea estas pequenas decisións que tomamos. A lingua pode ter efectos moi amplos. O caso do xénero gramatical pode ser un pouco parvo, pero ao mesmo tempo, o xénero gramatical aplícase a todos os nomes. Isto significa que a lingua modela como pensades sobre calquera cousa que pode recibir un nome. Iso é moito.
And finally, I gave you an example of how language can shape things that have personal weight to us -- ideas like blame and punishment or eyewitness memory. These are important things in our daily lives.
E finalmente, deivos un exemplo de como a lingua pode modelar cousas que teñen peso persoal para nós, ideas como culpa e castigo ou memoria de testemuñas. Son cousas importantes na vida diaria.
Now, the beauty of linguistic diversity is that it reveals to us just how ingenious and how flexible the human mind is. Human minds have invented not one cognitive universe, but 7,000 -- there are 7,000 languages spoken around the world. And we can create many more -- languages, of course, are living things, things that we can hone and change to suit our needs. The tragic thing is that we're losing so much of this linguistic diversity all the time. We're losing about one language a week, and by some estimates, half of the world's languages will be gone in the next hundred years. And the even worse news is that right now, almost everything we know about the human mind and human brain is based on studies of usually American English-speaking undergraduates at universities. That excludes almost all humans. Right? So what we know about the human mind is actually incredibly narrow and biased, and our science has to do better.
A beleza da diversidade lingüística está en que nos revela o enxeñosa e flexible que é a mente humana. A mente humana non inventou un universo cognitivo, senón 7000, hai 7000 linguas faladas no mundo. E podemos crear moitas máis, as linguas, claro, son cousas vivas, cousas que podemos cambiar para adaptalas ás nosas necesidades. O tráxico é que estamos perdendo moita desta diversidade lingüística continuamente. Estamos perdendo unha lingua por semana, e segundo algunha estimación, a metade das linguas do mundo desaparecerán nos próximos 100 anos. E o peor é que agora mesmo, case todo o que sabemos sobre o cerebro e a mente humanas baséase en estudos feitos a estudantes falantes de inglés americano nas universidades. Iso exclúe a maioría da humanidade, non? Así que o que sabemos da mente humana é moi restrinxido e parcial, e a nosa ciencia ten que facelo mellor.
I want to leave you with this final thought. I've told you about how speakers of different languages think differently, but of course, that's not about how people elsewhere think. It's about how you think. It's how the language that you speak shapes the way that you think. And that gives you the opportunity to ask, "Why do I think the way that I do?" "How could I think differently?" And also, "What thoughts do I wish to create?"
Quero deixarvos con este pensamento final. Conteivos como os falantes de linguas distintas pensan distinto, pero, claro, iso non se refire ao que pensa outra xente. Tamén ao que pensades vós. A como a lingua que falades modela a forma en que pensades. E iso dávos a oportunidade de preguntar: "Por que penso da forma en que o fago?" "Como podería pensar diferente?" E tamén, "Que pensamentos quero crear?"
Thank you very much.
Moitas grazas.
(Applause)
(Aplausos)