Can language shape thought? A comparison of the notion of time in Portuguese and Mandarim speakers.

• Grant number: 09/15498-9
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: April 01, 2010
• End date: December 31, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Experimental Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Júlio César Coelho de Rose
• Grantee: Guilherme Braga Sanvido
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 08/57705-8 - Institute for the Study of Behavior, Cognition and Teaching, AP.TEM

Abstract

Although the "strong" version of the Sapir-Whorf Hyphotesis has now been rejected, a "weak" version has found support in data such as those of Boroditsky (2001), suggesting that thinking about time in speakers of English and Mandarim is influenced by the temporal metaphors of their respective languages, so that Mandarim speakers think "vertically" about time, because they refer to earlier events as "above" later ones. The present study will replicate Boroditsky (2001), comparing native speakers of Portuguese and Mandarim. A semantic priming procedure will be used, in which participants will answer true or false to statements about the order of events. These statements will be preceded by pictures with an object ahead of or behind another, or above or below another, to which participants will also respond true or false. Boroditskys conclusions will be supported if Mandarim speakers show shorter reactions times after vertical primes and Portuguese speakers show shorter reaction times after horizontal primes.