Language is the system of symbols, sounds, meanings and rules established by society and is the primary mode of communication for humans. This post will begin by considering the ways language and thought shape each other. Then we will examine the elements of language, how people use it in everyday life, and how children acquire the capacity to think and communicate with words. In so doing, we enter into one of the most intriguing debates in all of psychology: the extent to which the capacity to acquire language is innate. The post will conclude by considering whether we are alone among species in the capacity to use symbols to think.

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