1983 Volume 5 Issue 4 Pages 481-492
"In the beginning was the 'logos', the word...Through this word all things came into being and apart from him nothing came to be. "These sentences from the Bible refer theologically to the creating 'word of god', but they also express that "homo sapiens" came into being when the use of language was acquired. Language is a prerequisite for human essence: Only by communication, could groups be formed, and by exchanging experiences, did culture develop. Looking at the history of mankind, we also see, that great changes in the development of human culture were always preconditioned by the level of communication, or the way, knowledge could be 'stored' and made available to others (e. g. invention of the written language, printing and books, computers etc.). No wonder that human beings always have been proud of their ability to use language and have regarded this talent as one of the dominant powers over other creatures. Reflecting on the relation of "word" and "reality", language and thought was always an important activity since mankind began to philosophize on their existence and the world the live in. In an age that was less self-conscious and less compartmentalized than ours, the nature of language, the relation between language and thought, the respect in which language mirrors or contributes to human mental process-these matters were topics for study and speculation by many scholars. During the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as philosophy, psychology and linguistics have uneasily tried to go their separate ways, the classical problems of language and mind have inevitably reappeared. Furthermore, new interests have emerged that permit the classical problems to be formulated in new and suggestive ways-for example, in terms of the new perspectives provided by cybernetics and the communication sciences. The uniqueness of language to man has, for centuries, led to speculation and research concerning the specific properties on human language and their contribution to, or dependence on human cogenitive processes. There is a classical view, strongly supported by recent investigators, that language is a species-specific human characteristic based on principles entirely different from animal communication. Focusing on the aspects concerning the achivement of language in early childhood, this study tries to cover the main points that should be considered, when thinking on the relation between language and thought.
