Lecture 2

Language & thought

All the theories range between identification of language & thought & their segregation. Language provides names for thoughts that exist independently. The relationship between language & thought is a mechanical connection between 2 distinct processes.

E. Sapir: language is an outward facet of thought on the highest, most generalized level of symbolic expressions.

The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: the language we speak determines what we can think. “Language acts as a polarizing lens on a camera in filtering reality – we see the world only in the categories of our language.” The Hopi language vs. standard European time, number & duration: english uses nouns to refer to phrases in a cycle of time, such as summer or morning. Hopi treats phrases as continung events. Words like “morning” are translated into Hopi as kinds of adverbs such as while morning phrase is occuring. English tenses divide time into 3 distinct units: present, past, future, whereas Hopi verbs do not indicate the time of an event as such, but rather focus on the manner of duration of the event.

Where do language & thought meet?

Word meaning is an integral part of word as such & thus it belongs to the realm of language as much as to the realm of the thought. Word meaning is a unit of language as a system of signs & it is a unit of speech. Generalization is a verbal act of thought. Every word is already a generalization. To become communicable a human experience must be included in a certain category. The higher forms of human intercourse are possible only because man’s thought reflects the results of categorization.

Conclusion: language is not a nomenclature that provides labels for pre-existing categories. It generates is own categories.

Word meaning is a unit of both generalizing thought & social interchange & it is of great value for the study of thought & language. In word meaning thought & language unite into verbal thought.

Language & thought

Thought is not merely expressed in words: it comes into existence through them. Every thought moves, grows, develops, fulfils a function, solves a problem. This flow of thought occurs in an inner movement through a series of planes.

A series of planes:

1. the plane of external speech

2. the word meaning plane

3. the plane of inner speech

4. the plane of thought itself

The plane of external speech – in mastering external speech the child starts from sounds & words, than 2-3 words, he processes from the part from the whole. The 1^st word of a child is a whole sentence. Semantically the child starts from the whole & later begins to master separate linguistic units & to divide his undifferentiated thoughts into differentiated units. The external & semantic aspects of speech develop in the opposite directions – one from the particular from the whole, from word to sentence, & the other from the whole to the particular, from sentence to word.

The plane of inner speech – inner speech is not “speech minus sound”. It has an entirely separate speech function. It is a specific formation with its own laws & complex relations to the other forms of speech activity.

Special characteristics & functions of inner speech:

1. Egocentric speech is a stage of development preceding inner speech. Both fulfill intellectual functions: their structures are similar: one changes into the other. The main distinguishing trait is its peculiar syntax: compared with external speech, inner speech appears disconnected & incomplete. With syntax & sound reduced to a minimum meaning is in the foreground. Inner speech is to language extent thinking in pure meanings. The specific semantic structure of inner speech contributes to abbreviation. Inner speech works with semantics & not phonetics.