1. In You Are What You Speak, Guy Deutscher writes about how our mother tongue shapes our experience of the world and denounces Lee Whorf’s theory on the mother tongue restricting what we are able to think.
2. The intended audience is all people regardless of their age, gender, nationality and education level. The author wants his message to reach everyone. His intention is, making people believe that their first language (mother tongue) will not prevent them from knowing what the world is about, but in fact will make them understand the world better when he or she knows the second taught language. Deutscher is biased in the way that he focuses only on making people appreciate their native language however, he should know that any language …show more content…
(Deutscher 214,1). Many years later Whorf was discredited due to the fact that there was no proof his theory was right. Today language isn’t being looked at as being restrictive of one’s understanding, but that it obliges one to think about the world in certain ways. For example, there are many languages that give objects genders, such as French, whereas, the English language does not require you to think of inanimate objects in terms of being masculine or feminine. There have been many experiments which have shown that grammatical genders can shape feelings and associations of speakers toward objects around them. (Deutscher 216,11). For example, in German a bridge is feminine, but in Spanish a bridge is considered masculine. Another fascinating example of how language can influence the way we think, is how we describe orientation. Some use egocentric coordinates, others use geographic directions and some use both. If a language uses only geographic directions, such as, Guugu Yimithirr, they think in geographic terms even when retelling stories, it’s how they remember events and situations. Language also dictates how we look at art and our surroundings. If the …show more content…
This article follows a chronological pattern. Ideas are mentioned followed by arguments to support them. Deutsher gives adequate examples and reasons for the idea mentioned and are given weight. For instance, when deutsher mentioned Lee Whorfs theory being denounced he says, “Since there is no evidence that any language forbids its speakers to think anything, we must look in an entirely different direction to discover how our mother tongue really does shape our experiences of the world.” (Deutsher 215,5) He then goes on to give an example on how the English language does not oblige the speaker to give details on the gender of a person he or she may be talking about, whereas in French or German they are obliged to give a specific gender. He also explains that it does not mean that English speakers are able to understand the difference between genders but that it allows the speaker not to have to consider the genders when speaking about someone each time, whereas speakers of other languages such as French are obliged to specify the sex of a person every
2. The intended audience is all people regardless of their age, gender, nationality and education level. The author wants his message to reach everyone. His intention is, making people believe that their first language (mother tongue) will not prevent them from knowing what the world is about, but in fact will make them understand the world better when he or she knows the second taught language. Deutscher is biased in the way that he focuses only on making people appreciate their native language however, he should know that any language …show more content…
(Deutscher 214,1). Many years later Whorf was discredited due to the fact that there was no proof his theory was right. Today language isn’t being looked at as being restrictive of one’s understanding, but that it obliges one to think about the world in certain ways. For example, there are many languages that give objects genders, such as French, whereas, the English language does not require you to think of inanimate objects in terms of being masculine or feminine. There have been many experiments which have shown that grammatical genders can shape feelings and associations of speakers toward objects around them. (Deutscher 216,11). For example, in German a bridge is feminine, but in Spanish a bridge is considered masculine. Another fascinating example of how language can influence the way we think, is how we describe orientation. Some use egocentric coordinates, others use geographic directions and some use both. If a language uses only geographic directions, such as, Guugu Yimithirr, they think in geographic terms even when retelling stories, it’s how they remember events and situations. Language also dictates how we look at art and our surroundings. If the …show more content…
This article follows a chronological pattern. Ideas are mentioned followed by arguments to support them. Deutsher gives adequate examples and reasons for the idea mentioned and are given weight. For instance, when deutsher mentioned Lee Whorfs theory being denounced he says, “Since there is no evidence that any language forbids its speakers to think anything, we must look in an entirely different direction to discover how our mother tongue really does shape our experiences of the world.” (Deutsher 215,5) He then goes on to give an example on how the English language does not oblige the speaker to give details on the gender of a person he or she may be talking about, whereas in French or German they are obliged to give a specific gender. He also explains that it does not mean that English speakers are able to understand the difference between genders but that it allows the speaker not to have to consider the genders when speaking about someone each time, whereas speakers of other languages such as French are obliged to specify the sex of a person every