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Thought, Consciousness, and Linguistics
The connection of thought, consciousness, and the lingual arts.

Thought, Consciousness, and Linguistics

Frum
Conscious

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Posted 06/21/09 - 07:58 PM: Subject: Thought, Consciousness, and Linguistics	#1
It is a common thing, to think in words. All thought seems to reside in the minds ability to translate what we know into words. Now, there are few, and relatively easy to see examples for why we use sound frequencies to transfer and create thoughts, ideas, music, and so on. The first being at the root of why we have language. Communication. Communication was always the primary use of words, and by all means always will be. That is why it is not to far off of the bend to presume that the first words were names for objects. Lets say that Mountain was "urgha" now, how did this association begin? Maybe it was less thinking, and more instinct. Humans evolved from earlier animals, and all known animals have a form of communication. Most of which use sound. But in that manner we see simple "Danger" "Follow" and "lets get it on" in almost every animal in existence. The latter of the three being used for both sex, and fighting. So, it is safe to assume that humans at least started with these before giving a name to what they would define as being an object, or a mountain... um, urgha. So the first forms of active communication would have to have been verbs. That means that once we started using objectified words such as urgha, nouns were created. Thus we have the basis of all modern language. Verb and noun. So, now that we have a language, we can move on to why we think in it. Once we created verbs and nouns, a whole new world opened up. We were finally able to think in a language! Now this one needs no explanation. Just simple "From whence I hath come, to whence I shall return, of which I have resided." ~ Me just now. Speaking in terms of the human mind. Words come from the human mind, to go to the human mind, and started there. From whence, thought was born. So, now we have generations advancing language, adding new parts of language, complexing it. Leading us to think more complexly. To begin to even objectify ourselves outside of our simple names. We became people. Thinking, conscious people. Now, comes the fun part. Why? Think about how you learned how to speak English. You probably learned it slowly from your parents, relatives, and uncle Jerry who taught you the bad words you mom used to wash out your mouth for. Now, we have all had creative moments where we made up words, flexed syllables, and used overly colorful language. So it is pretty obvious that humans can add many words each generation. There is another "Why?" in there somewhere, but then we would have to jump into the colorful, complex world of human brain cells sending the message equivalent of 0's and 1's at once another. So, as we added more words, once again, our minds were raised above their current limits, and languages formed in separate manners. Now, you may be asking "wait, didn't you already connect the three things? You just said that thought and language lead to consciousness. That is linking them." If you thought that, well, you would be wrong. I am not explaining the whole deal of this. As there is once last connection that is far to complex to rightfully understand. Assuming that consciousness is directly linked with thought, and that without thought, linguistics could not exist, and that consciousness requires thought to exist, and thought requires some form of conscious being to go being a verbal existence of brief sounds and gestures. Now, you will have to excuse me for not having done this earlier. I am defining consciousness as being self aware, and not socially aware. Knowing someone else is there and knowing you are there, but not knowing anything past that about those two factors is not consciousness. Having a name for yourself and thinking in terms of your situation is consciousness. So, in my final question, how is it that linguistics came about? Naming objects is a very complex thing and requires a conscious being to be able to identify then with a verbal motion, physical gesture, or chemical trail, so linguistics in this manner shouldn't have ever gone above the few basic verbs we see all over nature, consciousness should have never happened in the manner that it did, and thought should still be impulses acted on by all means. -Frum
Anger is the plague of all thought.

jtoma
Aspirant

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Posted 07/02/09 - 12:31 AM:	#2
I don't understand. A thought is like an exertion of consciousness. A thought's expression is done using language. Are you asking how language or linguistics came about?

ViperThunder
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Posted 07/02/09 - 09:06 PM:	#3
Linguistics came about, I think, due to a strong need to understand each other better. Yes, all a species really needs is a few basic nouns or verbs in order to work together; however, there is a strong desire in human beings to feel a deeper sense of connection with or to empathize with one another deeply. This was only able to be accomplished with an evolved language.

jtoma
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Posted 07/03/09 - 12:11 PM:	#4
Strong desire? There is probably an account of this in some scientific journal or book somewhere, or if you are concerned with linguistics, some social scientific journal or book somewhere. But if 9th grade biology is worth anything, humans developed language as a survival advantage. Communication augments our position of power over other animals. Communication also has negative effects, like the communication in a political/physicist circle that led to the discovery of the atom bomb. Bad global political communication could lead again to misuse of technology.

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