Analysis Of Lost In Translation Lera Broditsky

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In "Lost in Translation," by Lera Boroditsky, the concept that the perception of the world is different for people who speak different languages is proved through various global experiments. The author uses the purpose and audience of the piece to strongly support her main concept. The audience intended for this piece is the Wall Street Journal. Furthermore, the audience is a vast array of people with higher education, and business career individuals. The purpose of the piece is the realization of a profound connection between language and the perception of the world and way of thinking of the foreign language speaking people. Additionally, this piece challenges the world to rethink the way language is taught and received. Boroditsky uses …show more content…

In contrast, the author does not include her background of scientific terminology. The author knows her audience well enough to know the scientific leveled diction would not connect the audience to the article. Moreover, the author uses the rhetorical appeal of logos to bring her recent research claim to life. Through Boroditsky's use of statistics and global research data she entices the reader to believe and support her claim. The author uses many forms of rhetorical choices to reach the Wall Street genre of an audience. For the first example, Boroditsky uses rhetorical questions as her hook in the beginning and throughout the entire article. "Do the languages we speak shape the way we think" (Boroditsky 437)? This is effective because it makes the reader think about the purpose and inner theme. In addition to the first example, she uses the rhetorical choice of analogies to further prove her point. "Take "Humpty Dumpty sat on a..." Even this snippet of a nursery rhyme reveals how much languages can differ from one another. In English, we have to mark the verb for tense; in this case, we say "sat" rather than "sit" (Boroditsky 437). Through this effective analogy, the author shows the significant difference in language and grammar with a simple

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