Is it possible to survive without having a language?

Question

Surely if a person doesn't know a language then they wouldn't be able to think. And surely you can't survive if you can't think. Or would they be able to think in a different way?

It all seems a bit confusing.

Does anyone know anything about that?

Answer 1

Our neolithic ancestors survived quite nicely and it´s doubtful if they ever communicated in anything more than grunts, but then even a grunt can convey simple messages quite well.

Answer 2

language is just the formation of sounds of one culture. we can survive for as long as we have sounds. even without it, we'll evolve into making a new kind of communication. ^_^

Answer 3

Yes, animals don't have language and do just fine.

Answer 4

They still think, but they get pictures in their minds, not like us where we hear ourselfs.

Answer 5

Language is in everything.  Non-Verbal language is used so much more often then verbal language.  Think about the way people may tilt their head, raise their eyebrows, smile, stand differently, cross arms...you are continually using language to communicate in non-verbal ways.

Answer 6

You can think without words. You know you're hungry without thinking the exact phrase 'I'm hungry'

Answer 7

What does it mean to think.

Many creatures seem to think to some degree without an abstract language.

Then again almost all animals, plants and nicrobes have some method of communicating. Even the beings with no brains or nervous sysyems manage some form of communication.

You are right that it is cinfusing, which is what makes it a thing to be studied in many different labs by many different disciplines of sciences.

There is a lot of brain activity that goes on with no language involved at all. You don't actually talk yourself through every motion when you catch a ball or run. Yet these actions are not totally automatic. They have to be learned and then you have to decide when to do them.

Another point might be about babies. They are pretty helpless but they do survive, and they seem to have no language.

They need to learn language and that takes a lot of thinking power.

So it would seem that there are other tools used to think with besides words.