Language Informs Thought

Against-the-grain linguist Guy Deutscher thinks that language isn’t completely a product of nature, but that it influences how we perceive the world and, in turn, how we express it. Speaking about his new book, Deutscher says, “I argue that the mother tongue has considerable influence on the way we think and perceive the world. But there’s a great deal of historical baggage attached to this question and so most respectable psychologists and linguists won’t touch it with a bargepole…The most striking example involves what I call the language of space – how we describe the arrangement of objects around us.”