Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World

Through the Language Glass: How Words Colour Your World

Guy Deutscher

#3488 of 3,809 books · #517 in Science & Technology

Shortlisted for the Royal Society Science Book Prize (2011).

Does language reflect the culture of a society? Is it true that different languages carve up the world in different ways, and that speakers of different languages therefore perceive the world differently? And if so, does this mean that language shapes thought, or does thought shape language? These questions have fascinated philosophers, linguists, and cognitive scientists for centuries. Through the Language Glass traces the history of ideas about language and thought, from the classical period to the present day. It explores the evidence for the Whorfian hypothesis—the idea that language determines thought—and examines what modern science has to say about the relationship between words and concepts. The book draws on research from linguistics, psychology, anthropology, and neuroscience to investigate how language influences the way we think about color, space, time, and number. It reveals surprising connections between the words a language uses and the way its speakers perceive and interact with the world around them.