I insist that thought does depend on language

Published 23 October 2019

From David Werdegar, Naperville, Illinois, US

People with severe aphasia – the loss of ability to understand or express speech – may be unimpaired in other thinking abilities, such as chess or spatial navigation, Peter White argues (Letters, 7 September). And Martin Greenwood suggests that composers use non-verbal thinking, and cites mathematical physicist Roger Penrose's claim that much scientific and mathematical thought isnon-verbal (Letters, 31 August).

A composer may internally hear a melody, hum the tune and have a second person hum it too. But developing it for an instrument or an entire orchestra requires much thought, and that thought requires language. Penrose may think he can purely conceptualise without any words, but the mathematics he uses is a language in itself.

Aphasia is caused by brain damage. Those with a severe form are unable to navigate their way down a hospital corridor and require help with feeding, because they can't conceptualise the corridor, the dining room or that the fork or spoon in front of them are to be used as a means of transporting food.

Language skills, words and grammars are so subtly accessed in most of our pursuits that we are often unaware of them lying just below the surface of our actions.