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虽然语言学家一直在探讨探究“语言和思维的关系”，但让人意想不到的是，语言还会影响我们的思维方式~ 快和小译一起去一探究竟吧~

 

How we view the future

我们如何看待未来

When economist Keith Chen analyzed data from 76 countries, he found that speakers of "futureless languages" — those that use the same phrasing to describe events, regardless of whether they're happening now, happened in the past or will happen tomorrow — are more likely to save money and make good health decisions than speakers of "futured languages" like English.

经济学家陈基斯分析了来自76个国家的数据后发现，相较于说英语这类“有将来时态”语言的人，使用“无将来时态”语言的人——也就是不管事件发生在现在、过去还是将来，都用同样的措辞描述的人更会省钱，也更能做出有益健康的决定。

 

Chen concluded that speakers of futureless languages, such as Chinese, are more mindful of how their daily decisions affect their futures because they don't speak of the future in a way that's distinct from the past.

陈表示，使用 “无将来时态”语言的人，比如说中国人，他们更关注自己所做出的日常决定会如何影响其未来，因为未来和过去在他们的时态表述上没有区别。

 

How we orient ourselves

我们如何确定自己的方位

If you spoke Guugu Yimithirr, the language of an Australian Aboriginal community, you wouldn't refer to an object as being to your left or right — you'd say it was northwest or southeast. Speakers of the language don't even use words like "front" or "behind." When it comes to direction or orientation, they speak strictly in cardinal directions.

如果你会说Guugu Yimithirr（某澳大利亚土著部落使用的语言），你不会说某一物体是在你的左边还是右边，而会说它在西北方或是东南方。这门语言的使用者甚至都不会用“前面”或者“后面”这样的词。在说方向或位置时，他们从来都精确地描述基本方向。

 

According to Stanford professor Lera Boroditsky, about a third of the world's languages discuss space in absolute terms like this rather than the relative ones we use in English. To speak such a language, you must be constantly aware of where the cardinal directions are, and research proves that such speakers have an incredible sense of orientation.

斯坦福大学教授莱拉·博格迪特斯基表示，世界上大约有三分之一的语言在谈论空间时会使用这样的绝对方位词，而不是像英语一样使用相对方位词。要想说这种语言，你必须时刻知晓基本方向在何处，而且研究证明这类语言的使用者方向感都很好。

 

From an early age, speakers of Guugu Yimithirr pay attention to their natural environment, noting the sun's position in the sky and the direction of wind, and they develop a memory of their changing orientation as they move through the world.

说Guugu Yimithirr的人从小就关注他们周围的自然环境，注意太阳在天空中的方位变化以及和风向，而且他们在世界范围内迁徙的过程中，也培养了他们对变化着的方位的记忆能力。

 

Children in such societies start using geographic directions as early as the age of 2 and master the system by 7 or 8.

生活在这种语言社会的孩子从2岁起就开始使用地理学上的方位词，到7岁或者8岁时就能掌握这一系统。

 

The effects of gender

性别效应

In English, we can say we spent time with a friend or neighbor without having to identify the sex of that person. However, languages like French, Spanish and German require the speaker to consider the sex of the person they're referring to.

在英语中，我们可以说我们与一位朋友或邻居共度了一段时光，而不会指明其性别。然而像法语、西班牙语和德语这样的语言则要求说话人说明他们所指之人的性别。

 

In addition to assigning a gender to a person, these languages also assign a gender to inanimate objects, and they don’t always agree. In Spanish, table (la mesa) is feminine, but in German, table (der Tisch) is masculine.

这类语言除了要指明人的性别，还给无生命的物体标记了性别，而它们的性别在这些语言中并不始终统一。比如，桌子（la mesa）在西班牙语中是阴性，但在德语中却是阳性（der Tisch）。

 

 

English is actually the odd one out among European languages in that it doesn't mark objects as masculine or feminine.

其实英语在欧洲语言中算是比较另类的语言，因为它不给物体标记阴阳性。

 

Numerous experiments have shown that assigning gender to inanimate objects affects how we view them. In the 1990s, psychologists asked German and Spanish speakers to describe a list of objects.

已有无数实验表明，给无生命的物体标记性别会影响我们看待它们的方式。在20世纪90年代，心理学家请讲德语和西班牙语的人来描述一系列物体。

 

Not surprisingly, Spanish speakers deemed clocks and bridges (words preceded by the masculine article "el" instead of the feminine "la") as having manly properties like strength while German speakers, who speak of those same objects in feminine terms, described them as slender and elegant.

果不其然，说西班牙语的人认为钟表和桥梁（这些词前都用阳性冠词"el"，而非是阴性冠词"la"修饰）有男性特征，比如力量，而说德语的人则以阴性词语描述它们，认为其细长和优雅。

 

How we see colors

我们如何辨别颜色

Researchers have found that we even perceive colors through the lens of our mother tongue.

研究者已经发现我们甚至透过母语这片“有色镜片”来辨认颜色。

 

Speakers of the indigenous language Zuni don't differentiate between yellow and orange, and studies show they have trouble telling the two colors apart.

说阻尼语（居住在美国新墨西哥州西部印地安村落的祖尼人使用的语言）的人并不区分黄色和橙色，研究也表明他们对区分这两种颜色存在障碍。

 

However, Russian speakers have different words for light blue and dark blue, and they're better than English speakers at picking out varying shades of the hue.

然而，说俄语的人用不同的词来表示淡蓝色和深蓝色，而且他们比说英语的人更善于辨认颜色的色度变化。

 

Essentially, speakers of various languages could view the same painting and experience it differently based on whether their native tongue has a word for the colors the artist used.

从根本上说，不同语言的使用者在欣赏同一副画时会有不同感受，这要看画家所用的颜色是否能在其母语中找到对应词了。

本文由百度翻译&北语高翻联合独家翻译出品。