Title: "How 'you' makes meaning."

Abstract:
Why do people say 'you' when they really mean 'me'? The answer reveals how our attempts to derive meaning from life experiences are woven into the fabric of everyday language. I will report our research finding that people--both adults and young children--spontaneously shift from a self-focused ("I") to a generalized ("you") perspective when thinking about norms or reflecting on difficult personal experiences. Using generic "you" helps people 'normalize' challenging events and achieve psychological distance. In this way, a simple linguistic mechanism serves a powerful meaning-making function.

Bio:
Susan is a Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Linguistics. She studies concepts and language in young children. She is especially interested in how children organize their experience into categories, how categories guide children's reasoning, how children discover and reason about non-obvious aspects of the world, and the role of language in these processes. These interests have led to the study of concepts ranging from gender to digital privacy, and to collaborations with colleagues in philosophy, anthropology, linguistics, education, marketing, and pediatrics.