Buzz
Language is so intricately woven into the fabric of how we engage with the world that imagining life without it feels almost impossible. What would happen if we didn’t have names for things? What if we couldn’t ask questions, make statements, or discuss things that hadn’t occurred? Could we still think? What would those thoughts be like?
Whether thought is achievable without language depends on how you define 'thought.' Can you experience sensations, impressions, and emotions without language? Yes, and few would dispute that. However, there’s a distinction between experiencing something like pain or light and truly grasping the concepts of 'pain' and 'light.' Most would argue that real thought involves understanding these concepts.
Numerous artists and scientists, in describing their inner processes while working, claim they don't rely on words to solve problems but instead use images. Temple Grandin, the autistic author, explains that her thinking is visual rather than linguistic, and her concepts are combinations of images. Her idea of 'dog,' for instance, is 'inseparably linked to every dog I've ever known.' She likens it to having a card catalog of dogs she's encountered, complete with pictures, that grows as she adds new examples. Of course, Grandin possesses language and knows how to use it, so it's difficult to pinpoint how much her thinking is shaped by it, but it’s not impossible—and likely—that others, unable to use language, could think in a similar way.
There is evidence suggesting that even deaf individuals who are initially disconnected from language, whether spoken or signed, can engage in complex thought before being exposed to any form of language. Once they acquire language, they are able to articulate the types of thoughts they had before, much like a 15-year-old boy in 1836, who, after attending a school for the deaf, recalled thinking in his pre-language days 'that perhaps the moon would strike me, and I thought that perhaps my parents were strong, and would fight the moon, and it would fail, and I mocked the moon.' Additionally, the spontaneous sign languages created by deaf students without language models, in places like Nicaragua, reflect a kind of thinking that transcends simple sensory perception or basic problem solving.
Although it seems that we can indeed think without language, certain types of thinking are only made possible through language. Language provides us with symbols that allow us to solidify ideas, reflect upon them, and examine them closely. It enables abstract reasoning that we wouldn't be able to access otherwise. Philosopher Peter Carruthers has argued that there exists a form of inner, explicitly linguistic thought that enables us to bring our thoughts into conscious awareness. While it’s possible to think without language, language is what allows us to recognize that we are thinking.
