言語というのは、人類がユニークであることの大きな構成要素です。アイデア、願望、考えを伝える、この能力を意識することなく使っていますが、どんなに魅力的で重要な能力かを、私たちは、ほぼ理解していません。私たちは、見たものを表現するツールとして、言語を使います。でも、本当にそうなんでしょうか？
Understanding that language has a substantial impact on human perspective not only helps us better understand our own views, but also...the perspectives of other cultures all over the world.
Well, when it comes to the perception of color, there is an abundance of evidence indicating that language does affect what we see. Although we are all able to see the same range of colors, the language we use to label colors influences our perception of color. We divide color into different categories if we use language to talk about color differently. One study[1] demonstrating this phenomenon investigated color perception using an ‘odd-one-out’ task.
It was demonstrated that people from a Namibian tribe could (at a rate above chance) pick out the odd color in a circle of seemingly green options (Figure 1, right image), yet never pick the blue out (Figure 1, left image), whereas English speakers would select the blue while randomly selecting the options from the exclusively green option. The Namibian language has one word for blue and green, so Namibians found it nearly impossible to see the blue square. Furthermore, the dialect of this Namibian tribe had many labels for different shades of green (compared to English), making it easier for them to distinguish different shades of green when English speakers see just one shade of green.
What this study shows is that language can literally be used as a means to widen our perspectives of the world. Additional research has demonstrated that our language experience (i.e. the words that exist for us) affects how we perceive time and space[2], changes our attitudes, and greatly affects our cultures, among other amazing phenomena.
While language is a vastly useful tool for communication, it is greatly influential in our everyday experiences. Understanding that language has a substantial impact on human perspective not only helps us better understand our own views, but also brings us one step closer to understanding, quite literally, the perspectives of other cultures all over the world.
Looks like the benefits of learning a language never cease!
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Language notes
with little regard—without awareness or consciousness
an abundance of—a lot of
indicating—showing
whereas—on the other hand
distinguish—tell the difference between
means—way
vastly—very; extremely
substantial—large; huge
brings us one step closer to—gets us a little bit closer to
cease—end; stop
FOOTNOTES:
[1] Roberson, D., Davidoff, J., Davies, I. R., & Shapiro, L. R. (2005). Color categories: Evidence for the cultural relativity hypothesis. Cognitive psychology, 50(4), 378-411.
[2] Boroditsky, L., & Gaby, A. (2010). Remembrances of times East: absolute spatial representations of time in an Australian aboriginal community. Psychological Science, 21(11), 1635-1639.