Language and thought; to what extent is it possible to have thought without language

On the other hand, language is used to communicate abstract ideas such as when one tries to explain the theory of evolution by Charles Darwin. Language of words is needed to explain the concept of it thoroughly without language, then the listener wouldn't be able to understand the ideas involved. In this case language is used to extend thoughts.

Moreover, without any language description we won't be able to differentiate anything in life. For example, colours from red, orange or blue it would all be the same. How are we then be able to communicate to the listener to "pass the red pen" These descriptions are used everyday to communicate our thoughts, without it there would be great conflicts and confusions. However some might argue that another's man red might not be the same as the other's man red. The toolmaker's paradigm explores this in depth. It says that one set of sentences may mean different things to different people depending on their surrounding and situation. For instance, a man who lives in a rainforest and a man who lives in a rocky area will pick up a different kind of rake if you simply tell them to pick up a rake.

In human communication theory, language is essential to thoughts as we have to think before creating a message to be sent. It can be said that language act like a conduit transferring thoughts from one person to another. In everyday life people insert their thoughts and feelings in words when writing and speaking and people extract thoughts and feelings through reading and listening. For example, when politicians use words to persuade people to believe them and as a result support them during elections.

Language is sometimes used to enforce power on others. For example scientists talk about broken heart syndrome using the word "cardiomyopathy" the two words mean the same thing but by using specific terminology that an average person doesn't know does make the scientists "appears" to be more articulate.

However the semanticity of words can cause ambiguity when thoughts are being transferred. This is because people tends to interpreted words differently due to different background as we often heard "That isn't what I meant to say" when a person might offends someone and misunderstandings occurs. Our thoughts are fairly more complex and by putting it in simply symbols of words we can't clarify our thoughts exactly. For instance, in translation errors which is based on alternative word meaning at the dry cleaners in Bangkok has a sign that say, "Drop your trouser here for best result" Some people might interpreted this in a sexual way.

Some might argue that it is possible to have thought without language such as an automatic response to danger when we accidentally touch a hot pot of coffee we instantly pull our hands away spontaneously out of instinct. When we did this, we did not think in our heads, "Oh It's hot, so I should pull my hands away" therefore we can obviously think without using language. However, some may argue that it is an act of instinct therefore we did not really think about it.

Furthermore, language seems to be a way of expressing our social identity or culture or maybe even how you interpreted the word. For example if a person says that a glass is half full and his friend says it is half empty. The person that thinks it is half full can be seen as an optimist and the friend is said to be a pessimist. Language can therefore shape our thoughts.

Language in terms of words can't possibly be the only way to communicate thoughts. If that is the case then it would be impossible to communicate with a month old baby because it doesn't have any vocabulary of words.

Some people believe that language is part of our evolutionary process and that it innate to humans only. The evidence of this is the chimpanzee which belongs to the ape family which we are believed to evolve from often pick lice for each other as a way of keeping the community together. This can be interpreted that chimpanzees communicates to members of their community in this way. It can be thought of their own language which requires thinking. A question arises as we may wonder if gossips or anything social gathering that humans participate is a way of "grooming" as well.

So language or one may call it a shared system of symbols for communication that defines feature of humans compare to other animals is what differentiates us from the rest of the animal kingdoms. The evidence of animals like bees and monkeys shows that they have a language to communicate with others. Bees form a straight line as part of their dance to point in the direction of a nectar source to other bees. Bees therefore respond to one another in a mechanical way. This is because they do not actually "talk" about the nectar. Therefore it would be false to claim that their dance is a form of language. However if we take another evidence of Gardener's in 1970S with Washoe, a chimpanzee that develops novel expression by developing the vocabulary it knows to describe a swan water bird using sign language. To be able to complete this task, the chimpanzee must obviously think and use language to describe something that it not in its previous vocabulary. This suggests that apes are smarter than their language capabilities.

Essentially language is very powerful and it can be used extend, direct and even limit our thinking depending on how you use language and interpreted it. It allows us to communicate abstract thoughts and ideas but at the same time it can limit our ideas due to our perceptions of the language used to express. Language is therefore essential when we want to communicate abstracts thoughts or complicated theory to another human being but however interpretations and the liability of the information is not ensured. We use language to express thoughts but however we can use other forms of communication to express our thoughts such as facial expressions or when animals may "speaks" with their own "sound"

How to read a person like a book Gerald I. Nierenberg and Henry H. Calero

Arisara K. 12J