Labelling Language

How significant and important is the ability to use language, for intelligence?

Language can be understood as basically a system of labelling. It doesn’t necessarily have to be verbally spoken, as sign language or computer coding language would still count as a labelling system. It also shouldn’t have to be well known by any minimum quantity of individuals, as 1 person could technically invent their own labelling system and create a language. The main function of a language seems to be labelling objects, concepts, and categories. This acts as a shortcut for referring to objects or motion of objects (actions), or categories of groupings of either. Using this shortcut reference system can benefit an individual, by referring to memories more quickly and easily, or benefit groups of beings that share the same language, saved in memory.

By this definition of language, even animals use some language. Animals communicate using body language, sounds, or smells (as the common methods), to transfer information to other animals. This can be as simple as a certain sound of chattering from a squirrel, which they have used to label an object, being a predator. They transfer the information to other squirrels, using their labelling system, to warn others to react, by running from the predator. But, animals don’t seem to use language as an individual, as a shortcut labelling system for referencing memories. They don’t seem to be capable of complex memory access, which makes use of the labeling (that word of which, seems to be used as a label, using either a double or single “L”...) system as an individual, in order to take time to think about how different objects or actions are relative to one another.

For an individual to access memories of how objects or actions relate to one another (cause and effect), it seems to require conscious thought. With the use of conscious thought, a labelling system seems to become profoundly more significant. A labelling system enables an individual to more effectively use memory, of how objects affect each other. With labels, a new shortcut link is saved in memory, making access to groupings of objects or groupings of actions, faster, within memory. These groupings can be saved in memory, with a label of a category.

For eg, the label of “plants” can be saved as the category for any organism which has those similar traits. Then, when accessing memories of general plants, the subconscious has a saved shortcut to that word, associated with the concept, that it applies to all organisms with those traits. Without this saved label, if someone was to attempt to access memory of how plants relate to another factor (perhaps the environment), the individual would need to take more time to access memories of all different types of plants, and then access specific memories of different traits of different plants, and how plants interact differently in different circumstances. A labelling system also allows the shortcut, to memories of the types of interactions that the plants have in various situations. It allows the label of “growing”, as a trait of a plant, referring to the action of something becoming larger and changing its physical appearance, as well as the saved memory shortcut, of how something becoming larger in size, causes different reactions.

With the shortcuts of labels, saved in subconscious memory, an individual seems to be able to access memories of multiple factors and the information of how factors cause or effect other factors to react a certain way. These shortcuts seem to allow memory access to a higher quantity of information about objects and actions, to be more distinct and much quicker. Language seems to allow significant progress for a species with the capability of conscious thought, enabling more effective relation of cause and effect, within memory. This should be beneficial to each individual, as they can make a quicker and more accurate estimate of outcome (and therein beneficial adjustments to the factors involved), in any given situation.