What do we mean when we say that we think "in words"? When I think, I don't "hear" speech or "see" written words. So what is it, exactly, that we are aware of that indicates that thought is linguistic?

I don't have an answer because I have always been puzzled by the same expression! Maybe the whole way of putting the problem is muddier than we thought. The memoir My Stroke of Insight: a Brain Scientist's Personal Journey by Jill Taylor vividly explains the left and right brain functions - and what happened to the author following a stroke to her ‘logical’ left side. After checking out this book I am really not sure that all thought is done 'in words' ... whatever that is supposed to mean.