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Abstract

Extensive research has been made in studies of language and thought to determine if our thoughts about the world around us shapes our language of if the language we speak affects the way we perceive the world. Using the notion of time and how this is perceived by Chinese speakers in their second language (English), the purpose of this study is to test whether one’s thoughts or the language one uses has the more profound affect on the way events in time are realised in English. To further enrich studies of this area, this paper looks at how far culture can affect speakers’ perception of time and whether this contributes to the way language is said to affect such thoughts on time to a) challenge existing notions of universality and b) whether aspects of culture and exposure to their second language profoundly affects their ability to realise time in English. To test this, interviews were conducted to gain the view, opinions and experience of native Mandarin speakers to examine the language they use to realise events in time in English. Qualitative testing was used to investigate whether this approach would produce different results to studies, already saturated with quantitative methods, and found that the majority of the findings from both research methods remained mostly the same and was largely confirmed by existing literature. The study found that the language one uses has a more profound affect on the way speakers perceive time in their second language than their existing thoughts of time to largely confirm the Sapir-Whorfian notion of linguistic relativity.

Course: English Language and Linguistics - BA - C2742S

Date Deposited: 2020-09-23

URI/permalink: https://library.port.ac.uk/dissert/dis13549.html