language before thought or thought before language?

Question

Bruner thinks we need language for our thinking to develop. Language is necessary for thought.
Piaget thinks we need the right level of thinking before we can use language. Thought is necessary for language.
Vygotsky thought that before the age of 2 the child is separately learning about language (by babbling) and is learning to think about the world (by experiences). These two gradually come together.

Answer 1

Without thought, how would language ever be developed?

Answer 2

I think its 'the objective' that comes first and that takes it further.. to explain.. imagine urself to be a baby between 6 - 11 mths
the baby cannot speak, it can think.. but what stimulates its thinking.. its a need or an objective created out of an observation.. that the baby feels or notices.. many times agreed, that an infant is preoccupied by thought but those, i feel are by random subconscious movements, otherwise a baby is in its own world.. visualising itself.. the first language that a baby communicates to itself or to anyone.. is through visuals.. thought and language come in later.. they are just methods of communicating to self or others...and infact.. language later on confines thinking.. as the baby gets used to terminologies for the visuals that he/she saw.

for a more clear understanding.. if a baby falls down while crawling... and if goes unnoticed.. it hardly makes a difference to the baby.. and goes on with life... but yes if a parent spots the baby falling.. and reacts.. the baby comes out with a response cryin smiling .. etc.. i think newton's inertia comes in handy here too...

the language and thought puzzle confuses us because in a frame of moment.. there are three identities.. the acutal reality, thought and understanding...

reality being the actual frame of moment, thought the interception of the brain and the individual's perception, and understanding - the trigger for a communicating language

To sum up if we go one step backward from Bruner and Piaget we get a visual thought and a visual language generated by the brain, the moment we are born. The same happens when we listen or try to understand. We call it composing in the brain. While analysing the brain composes and recomposes the interception again and again...this is understanding.. and the process of composing and recomposing.. is optimised after a trial and error over a long period.. it is called a language.. now i guess we can understand the computer's birth too.. what.. say... i hope it's communicated..:)) ..

and yes i personally feel.. that language and thought never come together...we move on to optimise a symbiotic parallel between the two...

Answer 3

Thought before language, then language shaping thought. Language is merely a conduit to express thought, but also has a limiting influence. Just as one can't say "The English are smarter than the French" simply because there are in excess of 2 million words in english and nowhere near that many in french, so it is folly to suggest that language is a controlling influence on thought.

Answer 4

I can only speak from my own experience. Language and thought are simultaneous when taught by an appropriate teacher.

Initially we are controlled by our parents, and it is that mind control which gives us the experience of thought and language simultaneously. They are not our thoughts, they are the transferred thoughts of the teacher. The language is the transferred language of the teacher.

I say this as my personal experience of learning French from an English thinking school teacher led me to have good written grammar, and comprehension of written French however my spoken French and listening comprehension was relatively poor.

I also had a girlfriend who was bi-lingual, having lived in Geneva as a child, but with English parents. She primarily thought in English as well, and so did not teach me much French.

A recent period spent alone in France brought me into contact with some real French thinkers. People who communicate and think in French. On occasions when a female teacher of language came and spoke to me by surprise, and woke me out of a light sleep in a sauna, there was an instant of almost complete thinking and speaking in French which suggests to me that language and thoughts are transferred and so are therefore initially (when we are learning) simultaneous.

Obviously, some animals such as parrots are capable of language without thought. They are capable of repetition, and use of language to get a reward (which requires some form of associated thought). The experience of such animals suggest language precedes thought. However, in order for the animals to use language to their benefit to get a repeated reward, thought must be used. Therefore, perhaps language precedes thought.

Language is transferred from your mother tongue, thought is developed simultaneously from experience and transference.

Answer 5

Thought has to come first because language is surely the expression of those thoughts? We do have to think what we are going to say after all! Language is the verbal expression of thought.

Answer 6

Language is slow and cumbersome, thought moves at the speed of light and both are controlled by the unconscious that make the other two look like donkeys.

Answer 7

Psycholinguistics- fascinating subject, isnt it.
Erm, i would say that you need thought before language, as language is only a system of communicating ideas. for example, you could use symbols like the chinese do. language is then formualetd afterwards.

Answer 8

Since several higher animals are obviously capable of thought, but not of speach, I see no reason why this should be different in the development of man.

Answer 9

Thought. All creatures think. All creatures develop their own language from those thoughts. The superior ones use telepathy, so of course it is thought.

Answer 10

thought is very essential for language, but language is not that essential as we can think in pictures. however language does make thoght easier and can influence it.