Language & Thought
- Language could be defined as a 'code in which spoken sound is used to encode meaning’ (Barrett, 1999)
- Language enables human beings to form mental representations of the world: both abstract (e.g. ‘freedom’) and concrete (e.g. ‘cat’)
- In short it gives a ‘shape’ to what humans see, hear, smell, touch and taste in the world they inhabit
- Language depends on both innate and learned influences:
- Each person has an idiolect which develops and is modified throughout their lifetime and which is the result of both biological and environmental influences
- Thought could be defined as ‘the action or process of thinking’ (Oxford Languages, 2024)
- Thought enables humans to imagine, create and extend existing ideas about the world they inhabit as well as worlds which do not even exist
- Language and thought probably have a bi-directional relationship:
- Each may depend on and be influenced by the other (try coming up with one word without having to use thought to do so and then try thinking of something without having the language to understand what you are thinking of!
- Language and thought may have an interdependent relationship:
- Each is a separate entity but they both interact with each other to produce ideas, feelings, speech etc.
Language and Thought Diagram
Language and thought: a mutually beneficial relationship.
Exam Tip
And on the subject of language…the words you write down on the exam paper could - literally - be the difference between getting the mark you are capable of achieving and a mark you’re less happy with. Every year examiners comment that students should use sensible-sized handwriting as extremely tiny handwriting is very difficult to read. And if your handwriting is a bit of a mess then you should practise writing as legibly as possible: if no one can read what you’ve written then your work can’t be marked and you don’t want that to happen!
