In essence, do human beings require a rational mode of communication to express their ideas to themselves? I believe that they don’t.
A 13-year-old child was found in the outskirts of a Kenyan village, separated from his parents at the age of 3, with no learned language or method of communication. He raised himself over time, teaching himself how to hunt, how to shelter himself from the rain and the heat. When scientists found him, he was past the age where he could pick up on languages easily, and spent nearly all of his energy trying to make sense out of these new people that had found him.
According to this find, it can be said that “thought,” which is a rational process that includes memory, logic, and reason, is independent of language. While they were disjoint in the case of this boy, he was still able to think- to survive.
Conversely, some people state openly that ideas have no concrete meaning until language is used. The reason why I differ with their reasoning is clearly because language is merely a method of communication- whether it be spoken, heard, written, or read. A series of pictures – a series of thoughts, do not require language to be concrete.
In fact, how many of you have been in the middle of an in-class essay and were searching endlessly for the one word which summarized your idea? “Oh God! What is that freaking word!?!” You have an IDEA in your mind that still exists, in the absence of language.
Just some food for thought.
I agree with what you are saying. People can communicate in many other ways than language. Languages provide for a common ground, but body language, eye language or just common sense works.
Babies can think, but they may not know yet how to speak. Language is definitely not a prerequisite to thought.