How do people who do not have a sense of language think?

Question

A question that arose amongst a few students during my IB Theory of Knowledge class while discussing linguistics.

Answer 1

It depends on how you define think and language, i think.

If it is just a form of decision, then all animals may have thoughts. If a language is a tool of communication, then it is only required to express your situations.

I personally thinks that a thought process is eventually a result set of conditioned reflexs since any recognition involves association between occurrence and the result.

For example, if you see a cup and you recognize it as cup. The cup here is the occurrence and your recognition of cup is the result. Similarly, if you play chess, when you respond to the opponents move, you need to think. The opponent's move is the occurence and the responce is your thinking such as "well i don't know what to do next" or "yes, that's it. If he moves this way and I will do this."

Another example, a football player recives a ball and decides the next move. Is this a thought? If so, other life beings besides human also may have thoughts. Does the player uses words in his head when he makes a little feint? Maybe, maybe not.

The term, conditioned response, is used for automated responses. If a dicision consists of smaller parts of dicisions. then those small dicisions are consist of smaller decisions.

Let's say you decided to buy a specific car. There are thoughts behind it. They are not called conditioned response. However, if you break it down to smaller dividions, you will find lots of conditioned responses: negative feelings when the old car got the timing belt broken. Positive feelings when you had been watching the new car in a CM. Negative feelings to spend more money for a better car. Posoitive feelings to own something new.

Those micro-decisions cannot be tranlated into words, but definitely they are a part of the decision. That's what I mean by decisions are result sets of conditioned responses.

My point is that decisions do not always involve words. Words are symbols/sign of the results (conditioned responses) so that they are easy to be undestood by everybody. This is why language is called a communication tool. If one creates his/her own word with his/her own definitions, nobody won't understand it.

If you call those who cannot express their thoughts by words 'people who do not have a sense of language', then they maybe cannnot 'think' in your language. If you see a beautiful painting and can grance the painter's thought, then there might be a lanuguage in there even though there are no words.

Indeed many call it another form of language. This means there are lots of different language forms in our life. This also means that even though you think he/she does not have a sense of language of yours, he/she has his/her own languge. You just don't see it and it does not mean he/she does not have a sense of language.

Sorry for my English, my second language.

Answer 2

Ever try watching TV with the sound off (and no captions)? You see the pictures and people interacting, moving their mouths, but you really don't get the message. You see what they do, but don't know what they are saying. That, in a way would be similare to the thoughts or dreams of someone with no language. They'd see actions in their mind. It's like daydreaming, in pictures, rather than words. Think about driving through the countryside. Think about looking around you right now. Think about driving a nail with a hammer. You see things, yet there's not necessarily any words connected with everything you see. That's thinking without language, and we all do it much more than we'd like to believe.Linguistics are not essential to thought.

Answer 3

it is an age previous question. i will say we are dealing with with language because of the fact we don't have the different quickly and handy selection. Language is not any doubt an fairly clever gadget yet not the strongest. Suchit

Answer 4

Actually I've wondered about this myself. Here is what I came up with: Dogs can't speak English, nor cats, nor bears nor any animals. BUT, you would assume that instead of thinking in words, they think in actions. Just like babies...they learn that different sounds will create different responses. Like dogs, they don't have a language we know of but yet they can think enough to show you a way that they have to be let outside. I believe that we as people think through memorization of words and those who don't have language think with memorization of actions and their results.

Answer 5

Maybe images and feelings in their mind?

Good question.