People’s Perception of Reality: Influence of Language Essay

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The way people talk and the words they use influence their perception of any event because speaking is a basic way to express opinions and react to situations. Grammar structures and words change associations in people’s heads, encode new meanings, and affect the way humans perceive reality. Background does have sense, and it can be observed how it shaped every language’s grammar and vocabulary. Language a person speaks definitely affects the way they perceive the world. Language bonds tightly with culture: according to the location, climate, and events a population has experienced, it invents new words, dialects, affixes, and the way people describe reality.

For instance, the Spanish language has two forms of the basic verb “to be”, the one is ser, which means to be permanently, and estar, with points being temporary, for some short period of time. By contrast, there is no such feature in the English language, “to be” might, in general, be the same in the current and constant period of time. Even such a small grammar structure can shape the way of thinking. It probably creates a new set of neuronal connections in a human’s brain, emphasizing the importance of the timeline of the described event.

Furthermore, the Spanish language has two different forms for the pronoun “you.” The first one is , used for informal and friendly interactions with friends and good acquaintances; it suggests a casual atmosphere. The second one is usted, used in formal speech, strangers and superiors, showing respect to them. For some reason, in Spanish culture, as in many others, it is essential to separate the formal and informal attitudes to people on the level of pronouns. For English-speaking people, respect and formality are shown in other ways.

There are many gender-neutral languages in the world; however, Spanish is not one of them. In this language, the masculine gender is the one by default in any grammar structure. This component shows how prejudiced the culture was in a period when the language was forming. The language has a binary gender system for inanimate objects and has different endings according to what noun the adjective relates to.

The Spanish language separates feminine and masculine nouns: this factor is highly important in any culture, and it further influences its development. The absence of connecting nouns to gender suggests neutrality and alleviates any stereotypes, which is the first step in confronting them. Usually, nouns ending in -a, -ción, -ía, or –dad are feminine in Spanish (Thought.Co). The ones ending in -o, -or, or –aje are in the general masculine (Thought.Co). In addition, the interesting fact is that names of geographical features, such as oceans, rivers, and lakes, are generally masculine; by contrast, mountains are feminine (Thought.Co). Thus, connecting objects to genders changes perception, imagination, and the way people see them, such as it is with geographical names.

Several investigations compared how language affects Spanish people’s perceptions even when they speak English. Tests have shown that people from cultures with languages where genders are important in nouns indicate a higher level of stereotypes influencing their perception than those from the culture with gender-neutral nouns in a language (Burton). Thus, this grammar structure shapes people’s perceptions of the world and suggests different images and metaphors coming to mind, talking even in a foreign language.

In the Spanish language forming some grammatical structures differs from doing the same thing in English. For instance, in English, people say, “He broke a cup”; by contrast, in Spanish, it will sound like “The cup broke” or “The cup broke itself.” This structure drastically changes how a person perceives and reacts to the event. When the English speaker remembers who broke the cup due to the pointing out the pronoun in the sentence, the Spanish speaker is more likely to remember the action, and the individual who did that does not matter.

When it is an accident, it is clear that there is no one fault in what happened. In English, people tend to say, “I broke my leg,” even though a person did not do it deliberately. Spanish people focus their attention on the event, neglecting the subject. It seems that the language alleviates the feeling of guilt, ignores a person, and tends to remember what happened and what can be done to fix the problem. However, it is crucial to notice that being a witness of a crime, an English speaker will be more likely to remember a criminal, and the Spanish one the sequence of events.

Talking about time in Spanish distinguishes from describing it in English. For instance, people tend to use adjectives of volume or size rather than distance. They say hacemos una pequeña pausa, which translates as let’s have a small break, and rarely use the phrase corta pausa, which means a short break. They prefer to say much time, mucho tiempo, than largo tiempo, long time. This shapes people’s perception of the duration of events, making the time relative to them according to the language they speak.

In addition, the amount of words a person knows correlates with the number of neuronal connections in a human’s brain. For instance, in English, cup, and mug are two different words; however, there is only one in Spanish: taza. In experiments, when English and Spanish-speaking people were shown mugs and cups, there was noticed the greater electrical activity in the brains of the first group (Madhusoodanan). Thus, having a more prosperous language makes brains create new connections.

Increasing the number of neuronal connections shapes the brain’s appearance and makes it more complicated since childhood, when new words are learned. It is proved by psychologists that people who know a more extensive vocabulary are more intelligent and gain a higher score on IQ tests (Vocabulary Zone). Thus, it is possible to assume that some nations with a wider variety of words are more intelligent than those with smaller language vocabulary.

Furthermore, speaking different languages can influence a person’s mood, behavior, and reactions. The way it affects a person is determined by what stereotypes and biases they have toward this language and culture. For instance, people, who are not native English speakers, report being more open, optimistic, and easy-going talking this language. The reason for that is culture: it is always broadcasted in movies that English-speaking culture is informal and amusing, and people are always represented in good humor; that is why the language is perceived this way. Furthermore, communicating in a foreign language makes people more level-headed, rational, and less emotional.

In conclusion, language does encode the way a person perceives reality. It changes their reactions, behavior, memory, what they associate particular words with, and even shapes the brain’s appearance. Language is bonded with culture tightly, and significant historical events influenced its grammar, vocabulary, and endings. Furthermore, the way people talk and the words they use influence their perception of any event because speaking is an essential way to express opinions and react to situations.

Works Cited

Burton, Neel. “How the Language You Speak Influences the Way You Think.” Psychology Today, 2020. Web.

Thought.Co, 2018.

Madhusoodanan, Jyoti. . Undark, 2018.

“The Undeniable Link Between Vocabulary & IQ.” Vocabulary Zone, 2018.

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