Language may indeed influence thought

Language may indeed influence thought

We discuss four interconnected issues that we believe have hindered investigations into how language may affect thinking. These have had a tendency to reappear in the debate concerning linguistic relativity over the past decades, despite numerous empirical findings. The first is the claim that it is impossible to disentangle language from thought, making the question concerning "influence" poin...

Language, Thought and Reference

How should we best analyse the meaning of proper names, indexicals, demonstratives, both simple and complex, and definite descriptions? In what relation do such expressions stand to the objects they designate? In what relation do they stand to mental representations of those objects? Do these expressions form a semantic class, or must we distinguish between those that arc referential and those ...

Thought before language.

To learn language infants must develop a conceptual base onto which language can be mapped. Recent research in infant cognitive development shows that at least by 9 months of age infants have developed a conceptual system sufficiently rich to allow language to begin. Evidence for this system is shown by categorization of objects above and beyond their perceptual appearance, problem-solving, lon...

Language of Thought

Introduction The Language of Thought Hypothesis (LOTH) is a concept in cognitive science which describes mental activity in the brain as a form of language. The hypothesis was developed by Jerry Fodor in his book [1]. It states that the mind works with a language that is similar to regular languages, where an array of “words” together with syntactic and semantic rules make up the meaning of sen...

Thought Without Language