Re:Scientists Are Rethinking Animal Cognition
by leftyted on Thursday February 14, 2019 @01:24PM
(#19164379)
> A language is just a system of symbols intended to represent objects and things.
This isn't what I meant, or what is generally meant, by language.
Humans are distinguished by our ability to generate and understand novel sentences. This isn't a question of scale -- it's not a question of the number of things we have names for. It's a question of the ability to create and understand sentences that have never been created before. No other animal does this, as far as we know.
> You can also think without words. You do that any time you visualize something.
I'm not sure I can visualize something without naming it or describing it.
This isn't what I meant, or what is generally meant, by language.
Humans are distinguished by our ability to generate and understand novel sentences. This isn't a question of scale -- it's not a question of the number of things we have names for. It's a question of the ability to create and understand sentences that have never been created before. No other animal does this, as far as we know.
> You can also think without words. You do that any time you visualize something.
I'm not sure I can visualize something without naming it or describing it.