Phyllis Blog

  The text raises many issues that pertain to the English language. Specifically how the English language shapes how we think. The article speaks on Lera Boroditsky’s studies of how different languages require the speaker to include more or less information. For example, in the English language the time of the event is always mentioned in the tense of the verb. This cannot be said the same for other languages such as Indian where they use the same verb tense every time . This is important when looking at how language relates to thought because it shows that using different languages can require you to think of different details and notice different details in a scenario.                          Another difference is between Japanese and English. In English if someone broke a cup, even accidently, we would say ”She broke the cup”. However, in Japanese they would say something similar to ,”the cup broke itsel...

  An important issue raised in the text was the fact that a majority of the people on the earth today speak English but not as a first language. Around 400 million out of 1.5 billion English speakers have it as their first language. This correlates with the fact that there are more people in China who speak English as a second language than people in America who speak it as their first. This shows that the present state of English is good. Another country widely speaking a different language can be beneficial for the language since it expands its use. This specific point supports the statement that English is growing in popularity. This may support language imperialization since there is such interest in the language. Another important point that was raised in the text was that English is the world’s favorite lingua franca. Meaning that in an interaction between two people from different countries that speak different languages than English will most likely be spoken. This support...