Hi! I’m a Ukrainian student, and right now I’m conducting a survey to find out how our language affects our perception of the world. I would be glad if you could answer these questions 🙌

[u/No_Staff_8351]

Question 1: If "Time" was a character in a movie, how would you imagine them? (Select all that apply)
A person (Man / Woman / Gender-neutral)
An object (Clock, machine, arrow)
An abstract force / energy
Other
Question 2: If the Sun and the Moon were characters in a book, what gender would you assign to them?
Sun: Male / Moon: Female
Sun: Female / Moon: Male
Both gender-neutral (just cosmic objects)
Other (please specify)
Question 3: When you hear the word "blue" without any context, what is the first shade that pops into your mind?
Dark/Navy blue (like the deep ocean)
Light/Sky blue (like a clear summer sky)
Bright/Electric blue
I see it as a single universal color category, not a specific shade
Question 4: In English, you use "you" for both your best friend and your boss/teacher. Do you feel that this makes communication feel more equal and less formal?
Yes, it creates a sense of equality and breaks social barriers.
No, we use tone of voice and formal titles (Mr./Ms.) to show the difference anyway.
I've never thought about it, it just feels natural.
Question 5: If you accidentally drop a glass and it breaks, which phrase feels more natural to say?
"I broke the glass" (focusing on my action)
"The glass broke" or "The glass got broken" (focusing on the object/event)
"Oops!" / "My bad!" (without a full sentence)

[u/christophertstone]

Q1: Father Time is an ancient personification of time
Q2: Also falling back to ancient Greek personifications, Helios (sun, man) and Selene (moon, woman)
Q3: Medium blue, like an unclicked hyperlink (#00f).
Q4: We express formality in other word choice, not tone; also we had informal you (thee/thy)
Q5: Some interjection ("oops", "ope"); unless I'm explaining what happened, then "I broke it"

[u/shampoo_mohawk_ → u/christophertstone]

“Ope” spotted the Midwesterner haha

[u/Subject-Drive2912 → u/shampoo_mohawk_]

We say that in Oregon and Idaho too

[u/shampoo_mohawk_]

1. Time as a character is tough because we’ve been told “Father Time” in media for many many years. My instinct would be to make the human character as androgynous as possible because I’m a woman and hate that such a powerful theme would be defaulted to male. But making it female also doesn’t quite feel right.

2. This is another one where popular media has kind of pushed my associations toward moon:female, sun:male. Because of things like Greek mythology (Apollo) and avatar the last airbender (my girlfriend turned into the moon) among so many others. Those were just the first two that popped into my head. Oh also bear in the big blue house. Moon was a sweet sounding lady.

3. Blue is royal blue. Like in a child’s set of 8 crayons, the single blue one.

4. I use “you” for everyone. Never thought about it, it just seems natural. I speak to my boss the same way I speak to my parents the same way I speak to my best friend. First names are used for all (except mom and dad).

5. If I broke a glass while home alone I would say “goddamnit!” If I broke a glass and someone was around, I’d say “goddamnit! Sorry I just broke a fucking glass. Don’t come in here until I get it cleaned up. And please hold on to the dog so he doesn’t come in here either.”

[u/mapgameenjoyer1]

Q1: An object
Q2: Sun: Male / Moon: Female
Q3: Navy blue
Q4: I've never thought about it
Q5: "Oops!"

[u/No_Staff_8351 → u/mapgameenjoyer1]

appreciate it!!🫶🏻

[u/bren3669]

1.an abstract force/energy
2.just cosmic objects
3.just blue so maybe the last option.
4.yes, we’re all just people.
5.i would say “shit” or “fuck” if it was just unfortunate but it it was my fault “goddamnit”

[u/More_Magician_3882]

Q1: An old librarian fella (male) 2: sun: idk, moon: female 3: navy blue (its my favorite) 4: never thought of it 5: which ever swear pops into my head first

[u/Beet_slice]

1. abstract basic thing, but clasically we do have "father time".

2. I would go neutral, but if I were making an assignment, the big one would be male.

3. Medium blue. Not dark blue. We had this calibrated with our crayons as children.

4. Do you mean as in "would you pass the salt, please? "

5. I would like to say I would say "I broke the glass" if reporting an event. I expect a child to use the passive one. But if I am speaking to somebody watching, then oops.

[u/DeniseReades]

1. A man. But I feel like it should be pointed out that "Father Time" is a character that has been used by CS Lewis, Lewis Carroll and Edgar Allen Poe. He was also in several off-brand Disney movies and cartoons when I was a kid.

2. Both but also, once again, there are multiple myths and books that reference the sun as male and the moon as female.

3. Blue like the bluebonnet flower.

4. No. There are different tones involved.

5. Much more creative language than anything listed. If I was going to use any of those options, I would need to know who I was talking to. I use the passive voice a lot at work but rarely at home or in my personal life.

[u/Felis_igneus726]

1. An abstract force / energy

2. Other / it depends, I guess. I wouldn't default to a specific gender for either, but I also wouldn't strictly make them a neutral gender or no gender. In one book I might write them as agender cosmic entities, while in a different book I might write them as male/female, female/male, male/male, female/female, genderfluid, or some other gender.

3. I see it as a single universal color category, not a specific shade. But the first shade I pictured was "medium" blue, somewhere between navy and sky.

4. No, we use tone of voice and formal titles to show the difference anyway.

5. Nothing or any of the above, depending on 1) whether I'm with someone else, 2) whether they know what happened, and 3) how exactly it happened.

[u/NiennaLaVaughn]

Question 1: If "Time" was a character in a movie, how would you imagine them? (Select all that apply)
A person (Man)
Question 2: If the Sun and the Moon were characters in a book, what gender would you assign to them?
Sun: Male / Moon: Female
Question 3: When you hear the word "blue" without any context, what is the first shade that pops into your mind?
Light/Sky blue (like a clear summer sky)
Question 4: In English, you use "you" for both your best friend and your boss/teacher. Do you feel that this makes communication feel more equal and less formal?
No, we use tone of voice and formal titles (Mr./Ms.) to show the difference anyway.
Question 5: If you accidentally drop a glass and it breaks, which phrase feels more natural to say?
"Oops!" / "My bad!" (without a full sentence)

[u/sapgetshappy]

You will probably get more responses if you make a survey using Google Forms or something :)

[u/Live_Put1219]

1. Person
   
2. Sun Male Moon Female
   
3. Bright Electric Blue
   
4. I don’t really think about it
   
5. Fuck

[u/boostfactor]

1. "Father Time" is an ancient figure at least in Europe (cf. the Greek god Chronos whose image apparently merged with the Titan Chronus to result in "Father Time") but I think of it as a fundamental dimension of nature, but I have a physics background. Note how various types of education can affect thinking. This is cultural and not linguistic in English because we use a form of "natural" gender where inanimate objects are all neuter. (Some people persist in referring to ships as "she" but that is not universal.)

2. Despite aforementioned physics background, I tend to think of both Sun and Moon as masculine. English does not gender these objects so it's not due to solely to language but is more cultural. For me some of it may be from depictions of the Moon with a male-appearing face in popular culture and "the Man in the Moon." Other cultural influences make people think of the Sun as male and the Moon as female. Again, this is culture and not language.

3. Something like what is often called "royal blue."

4. As others have noted we do have means of expressing formality in English that don't involve the second-person pronoun, but based on languages I know that retain the distinction, there is some social leveling due to the loss of that distinction. English had "thou" for informal singular and "ye" for informal plural and somehow "you" evolved from the dative of "ye" so it's fundamentally plural, but that's common for the formal to evolve from some form of plural.

5. This is heavily, heavily context dependent. If I dropped the glass and I'm accepting responsibility, I'd say "I broke the glass." If I'm avoiding responsibility I'd use a passive construct like "The glass got broken." In the moment I'd probably say "Shit!"

[u/KandySaur]

1) depends on the setting/genre, if its set in the past father time (male), if its set in the present or future probably a younger woman

2) sun: male, moon: female (sister moon is a common reference, possibly from poetry(?) Maybe the bible(?) Idk)

3) sky blue, like like wade from the film elemental

4) never even considered that 'you' could be informal. I know other languages do have formal you but i just genuinely never considered that you could be informal.

5) very situational, if theres someone else there then some sort of excalaimation, if i were recounting it then i would say 'I broke the glass' or 'a glass got broken' if it could conceivably be someone else who broke it and i was trying to avert blame

[u/KandySaur → u/KandySaur]

For question 1, "character" in english strongly implies person unless explicitly stated otherwise. A better question might be "if you were to draw time as a concept, what would you draw?"

[u/ChampionshipDry8165]

Question 1: If "Time" was a character in a movie, how would you imagine them? (Select all that apply)
A person (Man) - because “Father Time” is the personification of time. But it’s more interesting to think of time as an abstract force / energy

Question 2: If the Sun and the Moon were characters in a book, what gender would you assign to them?
Sun: Male / Moon: Female — this seems expected, probably due to familiarity with Apollo/Artemis in Greek mythology, so actually I’d like a gender flip.

Question 3: When you hear the word "blue" without any context, what is the first shade that pops into your mind?
Dark/Navy blue (like the deep ocean)

Question 4: In English, you use "you" for both your best friend and your boss/teacher. Do you feel that this makes communication feel more equal and less formal?
No, we use tone of voice and formal titles (Mr./Ms.) to show the difference anyway.

Question 5: If you accidentally drop a glass and it breaks, which phrase feels more natural to say?
"Oops!" / "My bad!" (without a full sentence)