“Is the mind of a Mandarin speaker different from the mind of an English speaker?” Lera Boroditsky’s research (abstract here) has shown that the different representations of time in the two languages result in a difference in how the speakers think about time. The study of language’s effect on cognition has been controversial in the past as Benjamin Lee Whorf’s findings from the Hopi Indians were used for racist theories which supposed that speakers of primitive languages were incapable of abstract thought. But, despite the potential for improper use of the results, experiments into how language shapes our brains open fascinating windows into understanding how the brain works, how we represent concepts as we are cogitating. (via xblog)

Footnote: as I was delving into Boroditsky’s background, I came across the honors thesis of someone I know who has worked with her. Lauren Schmidt’s thesis shows that gender assignments for objects in languages affect the speaker’s mental representation of the objects. Studying French changed my view of various objects as I projected various characterizations on them in order to better remember their gender assignments. And I always wanted to know more about how they were assigned in the first place.