Think? By Guy Deutscher

Krista Lucero
11/12/13
Summary on Does Your Language Shape How You Think? I found the article Does Your Language Shape How You Think? by Guy Deutscher to be very interesting. At first glance I assumed it would cover language dialects and how there are stereotypes connected with many. However, this article was more towards language itself and whether or not it allows a speaker to perceive certain concepts of reality or to think certain thoughts. Though the article did not cover my initial questions I had before reading, I was pleasantly surprised and interested with its content. The author begins to describe this theory that language and one’s perception of reality of things are directly related by using the gender assignment rule in some
He describes how though the speakers of Spanish may think of la cuchara (the spoon) to be feminine, and describe it femininely as maybe being curvy, they are very aware that the spoon is not in fact a girl. The same goes for masculine objects such as el sombrero (hat) which can be described as covering from the sun or protecting your head, being worn by men. What I found most interesting was some languages sense of direction. Instead of using terms relative to the body, such as behind, in front, left or right, some languages use geographical location and direction, north, south, east and west. So when recounting an event or memory instead of saying “I ran through my yard” the speaker would say “I ran westward through my yard”. The same directions would be used in dancing or giving directions. The conclusion of this article was that even though some languages may have gender assignment, they speakers are still very able to distinguish the difference between a fork and a lady, and even if the only directions used are geographic the speaker is still away of an objects location relative to their body. So even though our language may or may not have words