Through the Language Glass

Guy Deutscher — Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages

This is an interesting little piece of popular linguistics, with the thesis that, contrary to what the linguistic establishment apparently says, language does affect the way one thinks.  If, like Deutscher, you subscribe to the idea that culture has an incredibly strong influence over a person’s development (“what we find ‘natural’ depends largely on the conventions we have been brought up on” [233]), this will fall on fertile ground.  Language is one of the central expressions of any given culture, and so will necessarily affect “what we find ‘natural’”.

However much you might agree with his thesis in the abstract, though, finding evidence to back up this theory is another matter.  Deutscher does well, focussing on the perceptions of colour, distance and gender in speakers of various languages.  The specific examples he uses are each an interesting vignette in their own right, and are drawn from a very wide range; they’re probably the book’s greatest strength.  There is some fascinating stuff about the speakers of Guugu Yimithirr, a native language of Australia, in which speakers never use egocentric directions (“in front of”, “to your left”, etc) but always cardinal compass points.  Think about this: that means that from the earliest age Guugu Yimithirr-speaking children have to be attuned to due north, south and the rest, always.  Further, they do this without ever missing a single beat to consult the sun or patterns of the stars: just as some have perfect pitch, these people have perfect direction.  The most eye-catching instance of this, to me, is a story when a Guugu Yimithirr speaker was explaining to a researcher where fish could be found in a shop thirty miles away.  The speaker said that the fish would be found “far end this side”, gesturing to his right.  The researcher assumed this meant that the fish would be to his right when he entered the shop, but they were in fact to his left.  This was because, as the researcher later realised, the Guugu Yimithirr speaker had not been gesturing to his right but had been indicating north-east — he was saying the fish were in the north-east corner of the shop (and they were too).

As a thorough novice, I found this a thoroughly enjoyable, well-written introduction to linguistics, while I was at the same time aware that it aimed for more than that in a better-educated reader; it argues for what sounds like a very different appraisal of the relationship between linguistics and cognitive processes, an argument I found very convincing.  And it’s short (under 250 pages), which, as I’ve said on too many occasions, is always a consideration of the first importance for me.  It is a little galling to me that Deutscher’s first language isn’t even English, but his writing style cannot be faulted — clear, engaging, pitched just right for the intelligent layman.  A winner.