Nov 30, 2021
One day, during a talk, she conducted a
simple experiment: she asked a group of scholars to close their
eyes and point south-eastwards. There were fingers pointed in every posible
direction. However, Lera Boroditsky knew that if she asked the same
question to a girl from an Aboriginal community in Australia she
would point her finger in the right direction. “Aboriginals do not
use directions such as left or right, and instead everything is in
cardinal directions,” says the scientist. In the world there are
some 7,000 languages, with different vocabularies, sounds and
alfabets. Do differences affect the way we see the world? “Language
has a profound impact on our perception,” says Boroditsky.
Lera Borodistky is a cognitive scientist,
psychologist and professor. Her research focuses on the complex
differences in human communication. “I’m interested in how human
beigns develop such a vast intelligence, how we process the
information we receive from the world and how such a complex and
wonderful phenomenon as the one we call language allows us to be as
intelligent and sophisticated as we are", she says. Boroditsky is
regarded as one of the key authors of the theory of linguistic
relativity. The scientist has developed her career in world-class
institutions such as the MIT or Standford
University. She is currently professor of cognitive
science at University of California, San Diego, and is chief editor
of Frontiers in Cultural Psychology. Utne Reader included her
in its list of “25 Visionaries who are Changing Your
World.” “A better grasp of language makes us more creative,
approachable and fosters communication in the incredibly diverse
world that surrounds us,” she says.