Posted by NJStatuteSection2A170/51 at ac83ea3e.ipt.aol.com on August 25, 2003 at 00:31:15:
In Reply to: I have read before... posted by jthecamb on August 25, 2003 at 00:15:57:
if i weren't a decent linguist id have to get all upset...What were you reading Highlights? Are you trying to tell me ASL isn’t a language? or do you mean speak as non-verbal???
And to answer that question - most tend to believe that para-linguistic language developed before the 'spoken' forms. Primitive man obviously had some cognition - hence the rituals that we have witnessed in burial sites and cave paintings. So, it certainly would not make sense to say that they cannot think just because they are devoid of the typical language....Think of the experiment where they place a 'chimp' in a room with 3 boxes and a banana strung to the ceiling out of reach. It doesn’t take long for the primate to figure out to build a ladder...
: that you can't have thoughts as we know them without a spoken language.