What came first language or thought?

New experiments with five-month-olds favor the conclusion that thought comes first. “Infants are born with a language-independent system for thinking about objects,” says Elizabeth Spelke
Elizabeth Spelke
Starting in the 1980s, she carried out experiments on infants and young children to test their cognitive faculties. She has suggested that human beings have a large array of innate mental abilities. In recent years, she has made important contributions to the debate on cognitive differences between men and women.
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, a professor of psychology at Harvard. “These concepts give meaning to the words they learn later.”
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WHO SAID thought comes first than language?

Regarding the role of language for development and the relationship between language and thought: According to Piaget, thought comes before language, which is only one of its forms of expression. The formation of thought basically depends on the coordination of sensory motor schemes and not of language.
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What was thought before language?

Thought comes first, while language is an expression. There are certain limitations among language, and humans cannot express all that they think.
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Is language necessary for thought?

Language is essential for developing broad concepts and abstract thinking, which humans have evolved into doing. Spoken language provides a set of rules that helps us organize our thoughts and construct logical meaning with our thoughts.
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Is thought determined by language?

The formulation of thoughts, according to Whorf, is not a conscious, independent process, rather, thoughts are determined by the specific grammar and vocabulary of the language in which ideas are expressed.
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Noam Chomsky - Thought Without Language



Does language limit thought?

Languages don't limit our ability to perceive the world or to think about the world, rather, they focus our attention, and thought on specific aspects of the world. There are so many more examples of how language influences perception, like with regards to gender and describing events.
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Is thought independent of language?

Myth: Thought is independent of and cannot be dramatically influenced by language. The idea that systematic patterns in grammatical and semantic representations across languages give rise to corresponding differences in patterns of thought across communities (the principle of linguistic relativity) is utterly wrong.
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Can you imagine life without language?

Since without language it would be so much harder to communicate science and technology probably wouldn't exist. We probably wouldn't go beyond making crude tools out of existing immediately available materials. Imagine a world without language.
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What is the relationship between language and thought?

Language is a symbolic tool that we use to communicate our thoughts as well as represent our cognitive processes. Language is the mirror of thinking, and it is one of the ways in which we communicate our rich cognitive world.
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Did cavemen have a language?

Most scholars believe that humans first started using a 'proto-language', which was a primitive kind of communication with only a gradual development of words and syntax.
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Do babies have thoughts before they learn language?

Symbolic communication in the form of language underlies our unique ability to reason—or so the conventional wisdom holds. A new study published today in Science, though, suggests our capacity to reason logically may not actually depend on language, at least not fully.
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When did human language start?

The results suggest that language first evolved around 50,000–150,000 years ago, which is around the time when modern Homo sapiens evolved.
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What did Piaget say about language and thought?

Piaget's claim is that language depends on thought for its development, and is based on four sources of evidence: the period of infancy, in which fundamental principles of thought are exhibited well before language; the simultaneous emergence of language, deferred imitation, symbolic play, evocative memory, and mental ...
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What is the difference between thinking and language?

As our minds learn language, that language creates a framework that allows our mind to form consistent and conscious thought. Humans are amazingly self-reflective, thinking about ourselves and our experiences and our very existence. Language allows our minds to process this information in a consistent way.
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What did Vygotsky say about language and thought?

For Vygotsky, thought and language are initially separate systems from the beginning of life, merging at around three years of age, producing verbal thought (inner speech). For Vygotsky, cognitive development results from an internalization of language.
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What is world without word?

www.aworldwithoutwords.com. Bringing together the most dynamic genre pioneers in neuroscience and sensory aesthetics, A World Without Words explores the nature of human language through a collaborative program of exhibitions, interactive events, and screenings in bespoke venues across London.
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Do we think in words?

You'll find that while you're repeating the word, you can no longer think using words, but you can still plan, reason and imagine, pretty much as normal. But even though we don't think in language, it does help us make our thoughts clear.
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Do animals have language?

Animal languages are forms of non-human animal communication that show similarities to human language. Animals communicate by using a variety of signs such as sounds or movements.
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Is language and thought universal?

A relativist holds that there is no universal vocabulary of thought and perception, so languages are free to vary largely arbitrarily in their semantic partitioning of the world (yes to question 1), and these linguistic differences can leave their imprint on thought and perception (yes to question 2).
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What is language and mind?

 Psycholinguistics is the study of language & mind: the mental structures & process which are involved in the acquisition, comprehension & production of language.  Neurolinguistics is the study of physical structure of brain & how language is represented & processed in the brain.
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Who created language?

Who invented language? Language came about and evolved over time in order for humans to survive and develop. It was first invented and used by Homo sapiens, but researchers don't know exactly when. Language likely began somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000 years ago.
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What language did Adam and Eve speak?

The Adamic language, according to Jewish tradition (as recorded in the midrashim) and some Christians, is the language spoken by Adam (and possibly Eve) in the Garden of Eden.
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Who invented talking?

Language started 1.5m years earlier than previously thought as scientists say Homo Erectus were first to talk. In the beginning was the word. And it was first spoken by Homo Erectus, according to a controversial new theory.
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Are we born ready to learn language?

The bottom line. Noam Chomsky's theory of universal grammar says that we're all born with an innate understanding of the way language works.
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