Words & Thoughts!

We use words everyday as a means of communication; A medium to convey thoughts and ideas from one person to another. This communication could be spoken or written. In either case we use words to communicate ideas or thoughts. What are words?

The spoken word is the basis of all Oral communication. It is nothing but a sound (produced by vocal chords). These sounds convey certain ideas or thoughts from one mind (that of the speaker) to another (that of the listener); they create certain images in the mind of the listener which in turn convey the idea or thought formed in the mind of the speaker.

Words in written communication are formed by a group of alphabets (in most languages) or a picture/drawing (as in pictorial languages like Chinese). Each alphabet has a sound (pronunciation) associated with it so that a combination of them could be used to convey the sound of the spoken word which in turn convey the idea or thought. In a pictorial language the idea is conveyed directly without recourse to the associated sound.

People from different linguistic groups find it difficult to communicate with one another since different languages use different words to convey the same idea (they may still manage to communicate to some extent with the help of sign or body language).

So words are basically sounds used to convey ideas or thoughts from one mind to another.
How are these ideas or thoughts formed? Naturally, by the process of thinking that goes on in the mind.

Isn’t it true that we use words to form ideas in our minds and use them extensively in our thought processes, especially when it is in conversational form? Does that mean that our thoughts are limited by the extent of our vocabulary (knowledge of words)?

Can we really think without the help of words?

Probably yes; we can form ‘abstract’ images in our mind. But, they remain abstract, just images, not an idea or thought. In short we are unable to comprehend it or make sense of that image. Nor can we communicate it to another through spoken words. Yes, those with artistic skills may be able to recreate the abstract image on paper or other medium and thus transmit the image to others. Even then until the image is given a name (in word form), the image remains just that, an abstract image. When it is named, the word used for naming it gets associated with just that image, probably without conveying any particular idea or thought.

If our ability to think is indeed limited by our vocabulary, by implication a wider vocabulary leads to sharper thoughts with greater clarity. Thus a person with knowledge of different languages and wider vocabulary should be able to think more clearly.

Is that really so?!