{"id":132977,"date":"2023-10-31T02:41:39","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T02:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluemull.com\/?p=132977"},"modified":"2023-10-31T02:41:39","modified_gmt":"2023-10-31T02:41:39","slug":"people-say-this-or-that-depending-on-the-distance-of-the-object","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluemull.com\/lifestyle\/people-say-this-or-that-depending-on-the-distance-of-the-object\/","title":{"rendered":"People say &apos;this&apos; or &apos;that&apos; depending on the distance of the object"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1>People all over the world say &#8216;this&#8217; or &#8216;that&#8217; depending on whether an object is within reach or further away, study finds<\/h1>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>The experiment found that the word &#8216;this&#8217; was used when the object was close\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Whether you say &#8216;this&#8217; or &#8216;that&#8217; may seem to be neither here nor there.<\/p>\n<p>But, helpfully for someone helping their partner with a recipe or DIY, if they ask you to pass them &#8216;that screw&#8217; or &#8216;that sharp knife&#8217;, they probably mean one they can&#8217;t reach.<\/p>\n<p>If they ask for &#8216;this&#8217; object, they are referring to a tool or utensil close enough that they could get it themselves.<\/p>\n<p>The rule that &#8216;this&#8217; generally means something close, and &#8216;that&#8217; means something far away, appears to apply no matter where you are in the world, based on a new study of 874 people who spoke 29 different languages.<\/p>\n<p>Researchers asked people to describe various shapes placed on a table using sentences like &#8216;this red circle&#8217; or &#8216;that green star&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/31\/02\/77200911-12691221-The_experiment_found_that_the_word_this_or_its_equivalent_in_ano-a-1_1698718181460.jpg\" height=\"422\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>The experiment found that the word &#8216;this&#8217;, or its equivalent in another language, was used 74% of the time when the shape was in touching distance (Stock photo)<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/31\/02\/77200909-12691221-image-a-312_1698717710696.jpg\" height=\"793\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Pictured,\u00a0Professor Kenny Coventry who led the University of East Anglia study<\/p>\n<p>The experiment found that the word &#8216;this&#8217;, or its equivalent in another language, was used 74% of the time when the shape was in touching distance.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>But it was used only 8% of the time when the object was out of reach.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Professor Kenny Coventry, who led the University of East Anglia study, said: &#8216;The words this and that may seem basic, but are hugely important.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;They were probably among the first words created by ancient humans, who needed to inform others about this or that predator, or food source.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;It is useful in everyday life, when working with someone else to cook a meal or do some DIY, to know that when they ask for &#8216;that&#8217; knife, they probably mean one they can&#8217;t reach.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, involved 45 international academics, studying English, Spanish, Italian, Norwegian, Japanese and Mandarin.<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-12691221\/People-world-say-depending-object-reach-away-study-finds.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>People all over the world say &#8216;this&#8217; or &#8216;that&#8217; depending on whether an object is within reach or further away,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>People say &amp;apos;this&amp;apos; 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