Words have power, but so does the language in which they’re spoken, according to Margit Tavits, the Dr. William Taussig Professor in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis.
In their groundbreaking book, “Voicing Politics,” published by Princeton University Press, Tavits and Efrén Pérez, professor of political science and psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles, uncover the many ways in which linguistic peculiarities of different languages can have meaningful consequences for political attitudes and beliefs around the world.
Tavits’ ‘Voicing Politics’ wins Robert E. Lane Award. Tavits and co-author Pérez have been honored for their book on the ways language shapes political opinion.
“The book explores how the language we speak affects the way in which we express our opinions and specifically focuses on political opinions,” said Tavits, who is also the chair of the Department of Political Science at WashU.
I think this project is a good example of how bringing different disciplines into the conversation can lead to something new and fascinating in terms of discovery.
Margit Tavits
“The central argument is that the small quirks and differences across languages matter because they direct our attention to certain things and away from others. Those little nudges are then reflected in how we express politically relevant opinions.”
Take gender, for example. In heavily gendered languages — like Spanish and French — objects are designated as either masculine or feminine, Tavits explained. In these languages, it’s often impossible to construct a gender-neutral sentence. In the English language, masculine nouns and pronouns are often automatically used if the gender of the subject is unclear or changeable (i.e., alumni, alumnae). But genderless languages — like Hungarian, Estonian, Finnish — neither classify objects as masculine or feminine nor use gendered pronouns.