Mentalese
We think. We speak. Did you ever stop to think about the relation between the two? In other words, which comes first, thoughts or words? Do thoughts shape what we say, or do words shape what we think? Which came first, the chicken or the egg?
Do words come first?
Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf proposed the linguistic determinism hypothesis, which posits that it is language that determines our thoughts (and not our thoughts that determine what we articulate through language). It is an interesting theory, but one which, under close examination, fails to explain everyday experiences of language. Take the following example. Everyone has had the experience of having an idea and not being able to find the "right" words to express it. We have all also at one time or another said something and then realized that it wasn't what we meant to say after all.
Or do thoughts?
Does this not, then, suggest the existence of a kind of mental language? A "mentalese," perhaps? When you think about it, the idea of a mentalese, or a type of language that is used by the brain to convey ideas to us, makes a lot of sense because our thoughts are independent of the words we speak. Examples of this include that babies are not born knowing words, but they are born knowing how to think. Similarly, when thoughts do not depend on words, translation from one language to another becomes possible (i.e., only when there exists an abstract, or "mentalese" concept can that concept be translated from one language to another. Words themselves could not be translated without there existing this concept which is understood by the speaker of each language according to his or her "mentalese.") Further support for the existence of a mentalese lies in the fact that many creative people claim that their most inspired moments come to them when they think not in words but in mental images. Take, for example, the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge, who wrote his famous poem "Kubla Khan" by "translating" opium-induced mental images into the words that composed the poem.
So what about my brain?
Your brain can use visual images to understand ideas and concepts. Cognitive scientists have successfully demonstrated this fact. What this means for neuroscience is that somewhere out there lie the clues for decoding this "mentalese" and discovering how our minds use images and ideas to help us think. See you next week.