Can we think without language? My thoughts are an internal dialogue using words. The more words I know, the more precise my thinking. Do young children, with their limited language, think the same thoughts as older children? Perhaps not, but surely they can think, even if they can only express their thoughts in terms of their body. They are good at making their intentions felt, partly because the older people around them are sensitive to their communication. Parents 'know' what their babies need, even though the babies do not use words.So, what kind of mind would we have without the single dominating internal dialogue? Who is speaking in my thoughts and who is the audience? Experiments with split-brains show that the right side of the brain has a limited language function, but it gets 'shouted' down by the dominant left hemisphere language centre. The right hemisphere has awareness of nouns, but limited ability at using grammar. What would our thinking be like if each centre competed with each other for our attention. Could we develop independent personalities?
Neanderthal humans became extinct in Europe about 30 000 years ago. Modern humans are not now thought to be related to the Neanderthals.
Who knows how Neanderthal humans thought or how they communicated with each other? Modern thinking suggests that that their brains were as developed as ours, but were not as well integrated.
But perhaps we can use this to find some clues to Neanderthal thinking:
Maxtla stares into the cold flames of the fire and tastes her heartbeats. A dark shadow, the aura of a raven’s wing, drifts across her eyes, blocking her view of the flames. Her heartbeats taste as wet earth on tired bones. Her breathing deepens and her heartbeats slow: the shadow lifts and takes the taste away. She knows that something is about to happen. A headache forms deep in the nape of her neck as the muscles tighten.
The scent of burning fat rises from the fire. Maxtla stirs as a memory of a warmer day floats into the air. She looks into the flames and sees an older woman holding a leg bone that was once her father. ‘Moon’, a voice screeches in the back of her head. ‘Watch for the moon’, says the wise woman who listens to the screeching crone. Her mother moves the leg bone higher and passes through the flames. She starts to chant phrases from her past.
‘Tonight, Maxtla,’ she commands. ‘It must be tonight. Look at the moon.’ Maxtla looks up and the clouds clear to show the face of the full moon. A shaft of white light illuminates the flame as the mother illusion fades. The old crone jabbers ‘Now’, and the wise woman advises, ‘be ready’. Images from her girlhood drift across the fire, she now knows how the work will grow tonight. Her legs shoot pain upwards and tell her to move. She rises and bows her head to the spirit of flames.
4 comments:
"Can we think without language?"
Is this the 'first' question to ask? Perhaps, that 'first' question should be: "Is our thinking more precise in matters discrete because we use language?
The first question implies some implicit false assumptions (such as thinking must use language and that language can only be expressed as words). Without having to state other assumptions, the first question 'begs the question.' [No PUN intended.]
Thank you. I do agree that there are false assumptions here - it is difficult for me, as an adult, to conceive of thinking without language, yet my children were thinking with foresight, making and executing sophisticated plans before they could speak in words.
I have forgotten what that experience was like for me as an infant. My dog can similarly think and plan (to a more limited degree). I do not know if she has continuous internal dialogue with herself.
One problem with trying to write a novel about such experiences is that they can only be described in language for the reader. This adds aother layer of complexity.
Ideally, the language used to convey the non-verbal experience should be so transparent that the reader does nt notice them.
'Can we think without language?' is, of course, a rhetorical question.
Many, many thanks for your contribution. You have really made me think.
K
I HOPE THIS LINE OF COMMUNICATION IS STILL OPEN.
I an 82 and in my days of paid work taught Latin to school students aged c. 12 - 18. How verbal is that!
Nowadays I notice that quite a lot of my "thinking" has become non-verbal, e.g. Where did I leave X, Y, Z? The object presents itself in visual form as does its probable location. Is this linked with short term memory loss and lessening skill in the use of words?? Before and after retirement I published some teenage and later adult historical novels; Rereading them today may I say without meaning to boast that I am amazed at my former fluency. (No, I am not well-known!- one reason I gave up writing, the other being I wanted some life outside our Edinburgh libraries!)
the questions especially in
I HOPE THIS LINE OF COMMUNICATION IS STILL OPEN.
I an 82 and in my days of paid work taught Latin to school students aged c. 12 - 18. How verbal is that!
Nowadays I notice that quite a lot of my "thinking" has become non-verbal, e.g. Where did I leave X, Y, Z? The object presents itself in visual form as does its probable location. Is this linked with short term memory loss and lessening skill in the use of words?? Before and after retirement I published some teenage and later adult historical novels; Rereading them today may I say without meaning to boast that I am amazed at my former fluency. (No, I am not well-known!- one reason I gave up writing, the other being I wanted some life outside our Edinburgh libraries!)
the questions especially in
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