I speak english and a little latin, so that is what I think in. My friends who take spanish think in english and spanish. You know how it is... if you are thinking you can kind of hear in your mind's ear the sentences that you're composing. But what if you are deaf? You would not know how it sounds. If all you know is sign language or something, then do you think in sign language?
2007-01-04 16:30:41 · 5 answers · asked by Rat 7 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
I would assume so.
Thinking is done with words and/or images....both symbols or placeholders for a real object(s), place(s), people(s), or ideas.
The same would hold true for someone who was congenitally deaf. They would, presumably, use American Sign to speak, and that would be the same language they would use to think in.
If there deafness wasn't pre-lingual, but instead happened after they'd already begun speaking their native language, then they are likely to continue to think in that language, while perhaps augmenting it with new Sign language.
Decades ago, if someone was born without hearing, they were considered "retarded", and really...they were. There ability to think was, literally, retarded by their lack of any language with which to understand the world around them.
2007-01-04 16:43:04 · answer #1 · answered by Samurai Jack 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
well yes, and also it depends what language their family is speaking. some deaf people can read lips and if they know how to do it in english, they they either think in english or yes, in sign language. I am fluent in english and polish and people ask me the same question and i tell them that if i am speaking to a polish person - in polish- i think in that laguage and vice versa. sometimes when i speak one language and i cant remember one word in that language i think of it in a different one. im sure deaf ppl do the same, if they are reading lips they think in that lanugage but if they are using sign language, they think in that. hope this makes sense.
2007-01-05 00:43:07 · answer #2 · answered by joanna 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
The deaf picture pictures and not sound. They would picture hand or lip movements.
2007-01-05 00:40:00 · answer #3 · answered by gregory_dittman 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
i guess it would be the same way as we read, we recognize the symbols in sign language as if they where letters.
good question!
2007-01-05 00:41:52 · answer #4 · answered by S-V.P.A.M 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Good question. I wonder the same thing about people who have been blind since birth - what do they envision when someone talks about colors?
2007-01-05 00:40:37 · answer #5 · answered by MsNobody 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋