Thoughts & Tea Cups

Going off of Mary’s point—“In the end, the word may no longer be 'freedom and liberty,' but the concept will still be understood.” I find the discussion on various languages and limitations imposed by each language to be interesting. While I believe that language, in respect to both our inner thoughts and outward speech, is important in conveying a specific concept, understanding—however hazy--of a concept can still be gained if there is no specific word for it. While it may not be as eloquent as the various established languages of the world, making up words should not be dismissed as inefficient or regarded as an impossibility.

When you look at a tea cup, your brain immediately recognizes it—in English, if happens to be your dominant language—as equivalent to the “symbol” that is composed of the letters t-e-a c-u-p (in that order). If you are speaking another language, your brain then “converts” the symbol of t-e-a c-u-p into the corresponding symbols of the other language. For example, even with Chinese as my first language, I do not immediately think to myself in Chinese. My thought process in the example would go as follows: recognize the cup-->think of symbol t-e-a c-u-p-->think of symbol cha bei (茶杯).

Going back to my first point, since our thoughts seem to have a set standard/automatic language in which we express our thoughts (to ourselves or to others), it is easy to express ourselves using only that set language.

I believe, however, that where there is a will, there is a way. Since my previous Chinese-English analogy may not be as relevant as it is not a “made-up language,” I’ll attempt at another one. My sister and I used to converse in some unknown (read: “made-up”) language with each other before we were able to speak coherently, let alone communicate with anyone else via speech. When there is no need or initiative to converse in made-up languages, we rarely do so. This, however, does not mean that said languages automatically possess any crippling limitations. You should still be able to express the idea you want to express.

P.S. Correct me if I am wrong, but, the title of “Language in Thought and Action” seemed to imply that language (supposedly the same one) can be expressed through both thought and speech. Most people, however, first learn to either read or speak a foreign language. Suppose you learn to read first. How can you properly communicate your thoughts to yourself if thoughts are “talking to [yourself] in words” (-Eric) if the thought only exists in the foreign language and not in your native one? Does the conversion process as was described above just self-destruct?

P.P.S. Please pardon the pathetic title, I couldn't stand another regular "Thoughts" title.
-Grace Yuan