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Comment by kcorbitt | Hacker News Reader

Just as a counterpoint: I (think I) absolutely do think in a specific language. I don't know if I do so all of the time -- there could be times when I don't and don't realize it -- but most of my conscious thought does definitely take the form of words, and sometimes even a well-formed internal dialog.

I speak a second language fluently, and after spending several weeks immersed in that second language I'll sometimes notice that my internal speech switches to it as well, especially when I'm thinking about concepts that I've verbalized/discussed in that language.

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We need language really to exchange thoughts in one head to another head, in a slightly richer manner than an ape can.

To "think" we don't really need language (the oral kind the non- deaf think they are thinking in).

Sign language among the born deaf, if allowed to develop without a need to learn spoken languages of the non-deaf, would be clear evidence that thought underlies oral language. And words (that stuff produced for your ear) need not be the only way to think.

I feel the same way. I always think in language and can't conceive of thinking productively another way. Sure, I can imagine a shape, but that's not something that I'd consider really thinking.

Additionally, for me to really understand some concept, I often have to concretely put it into language so I end up talking to myself. I got a cat so I feel like less of a crazy person - I talk to him and not myself.

Can you think mathematically? Do you know how to code? I would call that thinking and at least for me, that's not verbal. I can explain what I'm thinking but by default I just think without a need to have a voice in my head.

This. Internal dialogue can be mistook to be the only form of thought, but thought itself can be abstract beyond words. Of course the distinction, and the discussion here, might all just be a matter of semantics.

Good point, when I have been programming for a while, and someone asks me a question, it can take a bit for me to get back into human-language mode.

> I (think I) absolutely do think in a specific language. I don't know if I do so all of the time -- there could be times when I don't and don't realize it -- but most of my conscious thought does definitely take the form of words, and sometimes even a well-formed internal dialog.

You are mistaken. Your internal monologue is a side effect of your thoughts; it is not your thoughts themselves.

Perhaps you are actually thinking in concepts, and in order to help organise and 'sequentialise' those thoughts, you translate them to words in your head at the same time. Therefore, you 'hear' the words, but don't notice the concepts.

while it has pretty much all my life been for me the same as you describe, i still remember that before and during the first 1 or 2 years of elementary i wasn't thinking in language. And reading - i was reading whole paragraphs as an image instead of sequential word-by-word "reading aloud inside my head" as i've been doing since then. I guess it is about left hemisphere taking control. It is like classical CPU in the left and very powerful GPU in the right.

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