Question When the 1st word was spoken (i.e., Oog the caveman says "rock"), could it have been really understood without a language in place? Could Oog have really understood he was saying rock unless he already had the system in place. In other words would Oog have to have a word for "I", "am", "going", "to", "name", and "this", etc.? In other words would not the 1st intelligent being to speak something intelligible have to have a basic language in place? If this is true, then what would be the ramifications of that? Maybe the question should be posed, "Is it possible to think without a language?"

Accepted:

October 16, 2005