12. The relationship between language and thought. Language as a means of structuring and storing knowledge

Vygotsky’s view of the issue

All the theories of thought and language from the ancient times till the second half of the 20^th century range between identification of thought and speech on the one hand and their absolute segregation.

To cope successfully with the problem, we have to identify the unit which retains the basic properties of the whole and which cannot be further divided without losing them (as a molecule).

The unit that meets these requirements is the word meaning. In word meaning thought and speech unite into verbal thought. Each word is already a generalization. Generalization is a verbal act of thought and reflects reality in quite another way than sensation and perception reflect it. At the same time meaning is an inalienable part of word as such, and thus it belongs in the realm if language as much as in the realm of thought. Besides, word meaning is a unit of language as system of signs and it is a unit of speech.

Thought is not merely expressed in words; it comes into existence through them. Every thought tends to connect something with something else, to establish a relationship between things. Every thought moves, grows and develops, fulfils a function, solves a problem.

This flow of thought occurs as an inner movement through a series of planes.

• In mastering external speech, the child starts from one word, then connects two or three words; a little later, he advances from simple sentences to more complicated ones. He proceeds from a part to the whole.

• Semantic aspect of speech. The first word of the child is a whole sentence. Semantically, the child starts from the whole, and later begins to master the separate semantic units and to divide his formerly undifferentiated thought into those units.

• Inner speech. To get a true picture of inner speech, one must start from the assumption that it is a specific formation, with its own laws and complex relations to the other forms of speech activity. The distinguishing traits of inner speech are the following:

• Regarding syntax, inner speech is disconnected and incomplete;

• The first and basic one is the preponderance of the sense of a word over its meaning. The sense of a word is the sum of all the psychological events aroused in our consciousness by the word;

• In inner speech, the predominance of sense over meaning, of sentence over word, and of context over sentence is the rule.

• Semes of different words “flow into one another”

• Thought itself. The flow of thought is not accompanied by a simultaneous unfolding of speech.

Language and Thought from the Point of View of Cognitive Linguistics

• How can we make linguistic theory and methodology consistent with what is empirically known about cognition, the brain and language?

The designed features of language and our ability to learn and use them are accounted for by general cognitive abilities, kinesthetic abilities, our visual and sensimotor skills and our human categorization strategies, together with our cultural, contextual and functional parameters.

• Why can we treat language as a channel to penetrate into our minds?

Cognition can take place in both verbal and non-verbal forms. But only language can reveal the mechanisms of cognition. Our complex conceptual structures are manifested to language use and comprehension.

• What is the link between mental and linguistic categories?

Linguistic categories are not abstract, disembodied and human independent categories; we create them on the basis of our concrete experiences and under the constraints imposed by our bodies.

Concepts are embodied on the phenomenological level which consists of everything we can be aware of, especially our mental states, our bodies, our environment, and our physical and social interactions. The other levels are: the neural level and the cognitive unconscious (all mental operations that structure and make possible all conscious experience.

Both mental and linguistic categories are motivated and grounded more or less directly in our bodily, physical, social and cultural experiences. The structure of reality as reflected in language is a product of human mind. Semantic structures reflect the mental categories which people have formed from their experience and understanding of the world.

• Why is the focus on categorization?

The ability to categorize, i.e. to judge that a particular thing is or is not an instance of a particular category, is an essential part of cognition. Categorization is often automatic and unconscious. When experience is used to guide the interpretation of a new experience, the ability to categorize becomes indispensable. According the theory of prototypes, there are more prominent and typical members of a category and less central members. Prototype categorization stems from Ludwig Wittgenstein's thesis that many concepts are based not on a collection of properties, but on family resemblance: one game shares some properties with another game, and this other game may share some properties with a third one, etc.

• How is our knowledge of the world connected with our linguistic knowledge?

There is no strict distinction between them. Meanings are cognitive structures embedded in our patterns of knowledge and belief; they arise from experience and knowledge. Our complex conceptual structures are invoked in language use and comprehension.

The fact that our experience-based knowledge is present in linguistic meaning at every level implies that there is not a strict distinction between semantics and pragmatics, between synchrony and diachrony.

• How are conceptual structures or cognitive models reflected in language?

Meaning is knowledge. Our knowledge of the world isn’t structured until we give some word to it. Meaning is a structure imposed on our knowledge about the object designated by the word and the ideas, images, associations which the word evokes in the minds of language speakers.

Mental representations exist as models: abstract domains (any conceptual complex that functions as a domain for the definition of a higher-order concept), schemas (specifies general properties of some object), frames (represents a stereotyped situation – a room), scenarios (information about a routine social event – visit to a doctor), which are networks of propositions.

Memory tests show that we may fail to remember the exact wording of a sentence, but we remember the gist of what someone has said.

Propositions are structural units built around a node. The propositional node is connected to its constituent nodes by links or pointers.