>>>>> "John" == John Turnbull <john at turnbull.org> writes:
John> For me the words are in English. I'm not fluent or
John> practiced enough in other languages to think in those
John> languages. I would think if you are fluent in multiple
John> languages then either all languages are present, or you may
John> have a dominant language.
All languages are present? No. There are some words in English that
cannot be represented by simple words in Chinese, and vice versa.
Simliarly, there are Cantonese slangs which cannot be expressed
concisely in Mandarin. Don't you know that words of different
languages divides (sort of...) the world in different ways?
John> It seems there are a few possibilities when you think
John> visually, either the verbal part of your mind is generating
John> words while other parts of you mind are generating images,
Then, tell me in which language is the verbal part of my mind working.
Mind you again that there are often concepts that cannot (yet) be
expressed in words in any known languages.
>> BTW, how do you define "word"?
John> A unit of language that conveys meaning. That is just off
John> the top of my head, and I'm certainly open to suggestions.
That's not what I use when I think, then. Neither do I use words for
memorization. Memorization the shapes of a triangle, a circle, a
cylinder, a cuboid, etc. do not require any words at all. You can
memorize some shapes which you can't name, can't you?
I can often recall events in a language-independent way. Sometimes,
I'm even amazed that when I replay past scenes in my mind, the people
in my mind can be talking in another language that they weren't using
when that event was happening. I.e. my memory about what these
people said is not language-dependent. Sometimes, I can even forget
in what language I learnt something from somebody.
--
Lee Sau Dan $(0,X)wAV(B(Big5) ~{@nJX6X~}(HZ)
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