HOW LANGUAGE SHAPES THE WAY WE THINK

Part I:

Watch the YouTube video and answer the following questions:

1. How does the speaker summarize the process of transmitting her voice to the
audience ears?
2. What does the speaker mean with the expression “you are thinking through
language”?
3. Narrate some examples the speaker gives in the video about the difference in
cognitive ability across languages, in relation with:
a. Directions
b. Time
c. Numbers
d. Colors
e. Grammatical gender
f. Narration of situations or events
4. What does the speaker mean with the expression “Humans mind have invented not
one cognitive universe but 7000”?
5. Why does the speaker say that we are losing our linguistic diversity?
6. Give your own opinion, do you think that the language you speak really shapes your
think? Yes, or not. Why. Explain clear your reasons.

Link for the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RKK7wGAYP6k

Part II:

Syntactic typology.

Choose 10 different languages and identify their syntactic typology (SOV, SVO, etc.…). Also
add all information you consider is relevant to know about them such as: population, region or
country where the language is spoken, some phonological, semantic or pragmatic features,
etc. Look up at http://www.ethnologue.com. You don’t need to register; just click around the
website. You can find languages by region or with a search.

Make a report and select one language from your list to present to your classmates.

Send your report complete with your name in the title to my email.