Bob Yates writes:
 
(snip)

(Actually, this is not a very bizarre idea.  Imagine that you lost your
ability to say anything.  Would you say you are incapable of thought?  I
have several cats.  They are unable to use language but it is clear they
"think."  They know that certain sounds mean they will be fed and they
are learning a quick "no" means to stop what they are doing.)

(snip)
 
My comments:
 
The bell rings; the dog salivates.  Has the dog then had a thought? Is response without reflection 'thinking'? Or are you proposing that the cats are engaging in some kind of interior reflection? Hard to tell with cats, I know.
 
I don't think Lakoff and Johnson, or any of the cognitive linguists, would argue that 'language structures thought.' Rather, as I understand the argument, it is that metaphoric relations--where we understand one thing in terms of its being another--structure thought, language, and many other human activities. Metaphor is, for the cognitive linguists, not just a linguistic device, but a cognitive structure that manifests in language.
 
Seth
 
Dr. Seth Katz 
Assistant Professor
Department of English
Bradley University
 


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