Dear Jean-Marc,

That is a fascinating question. I permit myself to share the video you post about how language shapes thought because it's very instructive.

http://fora.tv/2010/10/26/Lera_Boroditsky_How_Language_Shapes_Thought

Otherwise, there is this paper of Keysar & al (2012). The authors propose that thinking in a foreign language reduces decision making biaises. The frame effect (risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses) observed when choices are made in a native language disappears in a forein language. According to Keysar and collaborators this effect arise due to the cognitive and emotional distance that provide a L2,3,4... comparing with a native tongue.

http://psychology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/foreignLanguaeEffect.pdf

An interdisciplinary review of affective processing in bilinguals (Pavlenko, 2012: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2012.743665) report that the mains findings to date show two interrelated effects: Native tongue increase the automaticity of affective processing and eletrodermal reactivity to L1 emotion-laden words whereas the contrary effect is observed in L2.

This conductual evidences lead to the possibility of a "disembodied" affective processing in bilingual speakers and therefore to the statement that languages of multilinguals may be differently embodied.

I'm particularly interesed in this problematic since i'm doing my master's thesis as to whether or not a second language is (cognitively as opposed to emotionally) embodied. For that, I adapt the Action Sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) of Glenberg and Kaschak (2002) in a french-spanish paradigm. The argument is that language comprehension is embodied and in some way, the ACE is a measure of language comprenhension skill. So it would be interesting to compare the size of L1 ACE and skill in L1 compared to the size of L2 ACE and skill in L2.

I'd like to know what do you think about it?

Well, considering that the perception of different selves is part of a bi- and multilingual experience (Pavlenko 2006), and that timing and age are important factors for an emotional bonding with a language (Pavlenko 2002, 2011, Besemeres 2003), it could be possible. However, I believe that general ideas and thoughts are "ingrained" depending on many more factors than just language(s), which all integrate to one coherent self. Therefore it would make sense to assume that multilinguals "think" the same way no matter in what language but "express and feel their thinking" differently in their various languages.

Dear Jean-Marc,

That is a fascinating question. I permit myself to share the video you post about how language shapes thought because it's very instructive.

http://fora.tv/2010/10/26/Lera_Boroditsky_How_Language_Shapes_Thought

Otherwise, there is this paper of Keysar & al (2012). The authors propose that thinking in a foreign language reduces decision making biaises. The frame effect (risk averse for gains and risk seeking for losses) observed when choices are made in a native language disappears in a forein language. According to Keysar and collaborators this effect arise due to the cognitive and emotional distance that provide a L2,3,4... comparing with a native tongue.

http://psychology.uchicago.edu/people/faculty/foreignLanguaeEffect.pdf

An interdisciplinary review of affective processing in bilinguals (Pavlenko, 2012: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00207594.2012.743665) report that the mains findings to date show two interrelated effects: Native tongue increase the automaticity of affective processing and eletrodermal reactivity to L1 emotion-laden words whereas the contrary effect is observed in L2.

This conductual evidences lead to the possibility of a "disembodied" affective processing in bilingual speakers and therefore to the statement that languages of multilinguals may be differently embodied.

I'm particularly interesed in this problematic since i'm doing my master's thesis as to whether or not a second language is (cognitively as opposed to emotionally) embodied. For that, I adapt the Action Sentence Compatibility Effect (ACE) of Glenberg and Kaschak (2002) in a french-spanish paradigm. The argument is that language comprehension is embodied and in some way, the ACE is a measure of language comprenhension skill. So it would be interesting to compare the size of L1 ACE and skill in L1 compared to the size of L2 ACE and skill in L2.

I'd like to know what do you think about it?

Thanks for this nice discussion. What do i think ?

First of all, when i give a class to my students and i have to talk about multilingualism, i often compare our different languages to different musical instruments. Notes are certainly in our mind but the fact to play one instrument or another will influence the apparition of other notes and shape in a certain way the musical creative process.

So, the languages have different sounds like musical instruments and rythms and harmonies like music styles and can modulate (more and less) our maner to think.

In the same way, if you want to translate brain quotes from one language to another, you often see that thinking and specially humor can be language specific (word meaning but also position of the words in the sentence who can create the humoristic effect).

I agree with both of you than researches about embodiment and emotions (do we understand and express our emotions differently in our respective languages ?) can give some decisives elements for my question.

Thanks, Maeva and Victorija for these useful references.

Best

Jean-Marc

Another link for the debate.

http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/boroditsky09/boroditsky09_index.html

The brain is organised somewhat differently for each language, since strokes can often have differential effects. When Sir Robert Liston had a stroke (Edin Med J 1836;46:334), he went to town to consult a doctor. His conversation was a mixture of German, Italian, French, Spanish, Turkish and gibberish, and he only spoke one English sentence. Previous doctors reported that he spoke in a variety of his ten languages, but principally Spanish, and only very rarely could any English words be recognised. He could not pronounce nouns or proper names in French or Latin.

If we imagine a situation like therapy with a multilingual patient and a multilingual therapist sharing the same languages. Which language do they choose initially to begin the therapy and in which particular situation can they decide to switch for one language to another ? with what benefits ?

I remenber a very funny quote on this subject by Dennis Wolberg (Comedian) i have found a few monthes ago in a brainy quote website :

- After ten years of therapy, my psychologist told me something very touching he said " no hablo ingles !".

I would say that moving into German language as a 20 year old in an immersion process (from native language--American English) I came to perceive that I understood the power of "querdenken" (thinking tangentially) enveloping my thought processes and "Weltanshaung".

Mark Twain a long ago jokingly wrote that "that awful German language" through its structural differences from English gave him a greater "sense of perspective" when he used the language or even read it. I would have to agree that the addition of that L2 and later an L3 in Spanish have added perspective.