Psycholinguistics : Language and thought

Ati Nesrine

University of El Taref

2017/2018
 The relationship between language and thought has been and still an emerging topic of

discussion as a consequence of the lack of a clear understanding of these concepts. Different

linguists and psychologists stand in different positions when talking about the nature of the

bond between language and thought. Vygotsky and cognitivists like Descartes, Locke, Kant,

Pinker, Russell, Moore, Lewis, Piaget, Chomsky, and Fodor claim that differences that exist

between languages cannot reflect how these people think , therefore, language and thought are

considered as independent entities where language is a tool to express our thoughts .From

another standpoint , Language is an inestimable possession of the human being; we use it as a

building block for any form of communication, including reading it and reflecting or speaking

to ourselves when evaluating the message received .Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf

and behaviourists like Watson, Ryle, Wittgenstein, Malcolm,Skinner, Rorty, Quine, and

Rosenberg saw the connection so tight, and concluded that thought is determined by language

since thinking is unavoidable when addressing language. This debate distinguishes two levels:

the level of thinking which is independent of language, and a level of thinking is dependent on

language .

In the second half of the 20th century and with the development of cognitive science , the

link between thought and language was dismissed . the proponents of the statement that

thought and language are two independent processes claim that even though differences may

occur in languages , but these differences are still the same descriptions of the same object in

reality . furthermore, they say that a stone is a stone whatever you call it , and the fact that it is

different in every single language does not mean that they think of it in different ways . They

believe that all humans are homogenized into one system of thinking , and even though there

are some semantic distinctions among languages the cognition would not be affected

.according to Vygotsky language and thought have independent roots , and within the age of

two children start to give some forms of thought a spoken form ,moreover he asserts that inner
thinking is independent from vocalization .Chomsky, with his theory of universals thinks that

language is used the same way by all humans and have one common deep structure , but the

method used to describe it is different , and the fact that there are different languages for

different cultures does not influence their thinking and how they perceive the world. Steven

Pinker says ,'' Yes, I don't think that we think in language, or think in words....the fact that

there can be two ideas underlying the word stud, for example, or underlying the word tires,

shows that words and thoughts can't be the same thing''.This quote is one of the arguments

that Pinker have used to refute the Whorf hypothesis furthermore , He states that if thought

depends on language than new words cannot be coined and language could not be learned .

He believes that all humans have an innate language of thought or mantalese , he states ''

knowing a language , then is knowing how to translate mantalese into strings of words '' this

means that we do not think with our first languages but we are thinking in a language of

thought and translating it into our languages so we can communicate . He also reinforces his

claim using the example of Mr Ford, a cost guard operator who suffered from a stroke, his

broca' s area was injured. Mr ford lost the ability to use grammar ,but not his ability to

think ;he continued to use number correctly ,calculation, drawing ,and map reading

...etc.According to Piaget, subconscious thought is not influenced by language in the case of

babies and the same thing applies for signers and physically retarded groups who have a

thinking process in the absence of the language .Ildefonso,deaf and mute Mexican woman

who was taught sign language and told Mark Schaller her events from the past ,therefore

language is not a driver of thought . ''infants are capable, during the first day of their life, of a

kind of reaching… they are able to project their arms in the direction of a visually perceived

moving object. The new-born’s reaching behaviour manifests his capacity to process certain

categories of information related to the situation and to his own actions'' Mounoud, Pierre

(1988), p.30.since the reaching behaviour have an aim, the action would have a relation with a
reasonable cognitive process and would not be reflexive .another way to prove that thinking

can happen without the presence of language is the experiment on animals which proves that

even though they do not possess a language ability , they have a cognitive ability .

On the other side , linguists like William von Humboldt said that thought is the internal

dialogue , so it reflects the grammar and the syntax of the speaker . Edward Sapir and

Benjamin Whorf took it further and said that languages have differences and these linguistic

differences do affect the cognition, in another words language affects our own thoughts .The

Whorfian hypothesis contains linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity. Linguistic

determinism means the language will determine our thoughts, and linguistic relativity means

the speakers of different languages thinks in different ways. An example given by Whorf

when he worked for an insurance company, he states that the term empty in '' empty gasoline

drums '' was misleading and people would understand it as if it was actually empty and does

not cause any harm ,but it can be interpreted in two different ways: as a synonym to the word

empty or in analysis of a physical situation. Edward Sapir wrote that '' the world in which

different societies live are distinct worlds, not merely the same world with different labels

attached '' .He believed that language had an effect on our thinking .Benjamin Lee Whorf,

Sapir student ,took it further and studied the native American language , the Hopi language,

he found out that it does not have any words or grammatical forms that can refer to time . In

his book Language, thought and reality Whorf says “In this Hopi view, time disappears and

space is altered, so that it is no longer the homogenous and instantaneous timeless space of

our supposed intuitions or of classical Newtonian mechanics. At the same time, new concepts

and abstractions flow into the picture.” That is to say Hopi people don’t think of time and

space the same as we do ; they see everything happening now and connected , and their

language is a mirror for their view .he also said in his book Language thought and reality '' all

observers are not led by the same physical evidence to the same picture of the universe, unless
their linguistic backgrounds are similar''.another argument for the Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is

if one language recognize the colours differently than other languages then the group of

people will perceive it differently . A study made by researchers in 1970 support this

hypothesis where 160 different colours were given to Berinmo people from new guinea , and

they were asked to categorize them .since this tribe has only two colours which are nol and

wor)both f them fall under the category of yellow in English (,they could not make a

distinction between the colour green and blue . a proponent of the Sapir –Whorf hypothesis

,Peter Gordon ,mentioned that the language of piraha tribe contains only three counting words

one , two , and many .according to his researches these people have difficulties counting

words higher than three and cannot distinguish between four and five , thus the tribe language

determines their thoughts .

For my own part, we can think without using a language, and this can be applied for

animals and humans . Animals do not have any ability to produce a linguistic structure, but

they can surely think. Same for humans .the example of Mr Ford confirm it; he cannot

produce grammar but he can do cognitive tasks. Also deaf people who do not have any

language and how they came up with a new language , or deaf people who do not have a

spoken language like Idelfonso ; both of them have the full ability to think without having the

ability to produce a language .knowing less words does not mean thinking less thoughts, the

hopi people do not experience time differently because they lack the world for dividing it

.they have their own way to refer to time and they think and experience it same as we do .It is

known that the Danni people of New Guinea have only two words to refer to colours mili and

mola )lighter and darker shades(but they do differentiate between the other different colours

and make detail distinction between them . Besides, if the language that we use determines

our thinking ,then why there is a diversity in thinking among the same linguistic group ,and
how does a multilingual think or perceive the world . The Whorfian theory evidence is based

only on linguistic differences , and that is inadequate.

Language and thought relationship falls into two categories ,there are linguists ,who

believe in the language of thought ,and we can think without a language. while others think

that our thoughts are build from the language that we use. The sapir and Whorf hypothesis

have opened up this debate over relationship between language and thought , and led many

scholars to make researches on how people think and how the language takes part in this

process . Although this hypothesis may seem adequate in some cases , psycholinguistics has

provided some evidences to contradict it .Universalists proved that language is neutral to the

thought , and it is used as a tool to convey it . and criticised the Sapir Whorf hypothesis using

universalism and the language of thought .

Birjandi,P. A Review of the Language-Thought Debate: Multivariant Perspectives . Parviz Birjandi

Chomsky,N.)2006(.Language and Mind. New York :Cambridge University Press.

Mishlove,J. Thinking Alowed Conversations On The Leading Edge Of Knowledge and

Mounoud, Pierre (1988). The ontogenesis of different types of thought: language and motor
behaviours as non-specific manifestations. In L. Weiskrantz (Ed.), Thought without language. New
York: Oxford University Press.

Pinker,S. Language as an Adaptation to the Cognitive Niche

Phipps,S. )2001(.LANGUAGE AND THOUGHT:EXAMINING LINGUISTIC RELATIVITY

Regier,T.,Kay,P.,Gillbert,A,L. &Ivry,R,B. Language and thought: Which side are you on, anyway?.
University of Chicago.

Sureshkumar.N. )2002(. LANGUAGE ACQUISITION : THEORETICAL BACKGROUND

Tsoi,T. Discovering Linguistics

Whorf,B,L., Carroll ,J,B.(1964). “Language, Thought, and Reality: Selected Writings of Benjamin Lee
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Wyatt,S.)2003(.Language and Thought