Post by anniee on Dec 13, 2015 11:54:35 GMT
As you mentioned, I don’t think the act of thinking is possible without language. Language is the basis of communication, whether it is with ourselves or another human being. However, I disagree with your statement that "Thinking has to have existed before language." I believe that thinking and language come hand in hand as a pair. In our head, when we think about different things, we are using our own personal language to be able to understand what we are thinking about. This language doesn't necessarily have to be made up of a phonetic alphabet; it can be images, signs, sound, and gestures – anything that helps us symbolize or represent a certain notion. Language always exists, but it just may not always be one of the universal languages of our modern world. Language allows for the expansion of thinking through interaction, for people can congregate and combine their ideas to form a unique concept that wouldn’t have been thought of on one’s own.