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Old 08-09-2007, 07:48 AM
MicroBob MicroBob is offline
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Default Re: the correlation between language, thoughts and intelligence

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Does having words for things determine if you can think about them?

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Kurosh's Q somewhat reminds me of:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=co-c5gPWfiM


This is a clip from an old French film where the main character randomly starts chatting with an old philosopher in a cafe.

It does not have to do with bilingualness specifically but the discussion of language, communication, thought, etc is a somewhat interesting one.

Although around the 5:00 mark he does reference how a guy like Plato from 2,500 years ago writing in old Greek that nobody really knows anymore, at least, not exactly, can still be understood today because enough is able to get through.
Even if you are probably not getting the exact/precise intention of his words after translating you still can understand.

This specifically seems relevant to the Q I guess of whether you have to know the word/language for something in order to be able to think about it or comprehend it.

Apologies if the clip is too boring or too far away from the bilingualness discussion but hopefully someone enjoys it.
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