Quillette Podcast 'Language vs. Reality' with Nick Enfield
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Jul 24, 2024 
Linguistic anthropologist Nick Enfield discusses the impact of language on different professions like lawyers and scientists. Topics include the role of language in social coordination, memory, perception, storytelling, and the influence of language on perception and thinking.
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Language As A Coordination Tool
- Language functions primarily as a coordination tool, guiding others to align actions and perspectives rather than merely transferring information.
- Schelling-style coordination games (bridge, 50-50 split, tangram labels) show we rely on shared conspicuous landmarks and conventions.
Words Compress Real-World Diversity
- Words compress infinite variation into functional categories so speakers can coordinate (e.g., 'spoon' discards irrelevant differences).
- Roger Brown's child-language data show categories evolve to serve culturally relevant distinctions.
Verbal Overshadowing Harms Memory
- Verbal overshadowing: describing perceptual experiences in words can degrade later recognition performance.
- Eyewitness studies show describing a robber's face makes subsequent lineup identification worse.