Fascinating piece on the resurgence of the "Whorfian hypothesis," the idea that launguage shapes thought.
In English, time rushes forward. In Mandarin Chinese, it moves down. The past lies above, and the future lies below…
Last year, [a researcher] published a study in which she asked people to answer simple time sequence questions while watching a video screen. When objects on the screen move vertically, the Mandarin speakers are able to answer faster than English speakers – implying that their brains processed time questions differently, and hinting that there could be other differences.
(Thanks, Pat!)
