LANGUAGE AS INTELLIGENCE?

Abstract

The interpenetration of languagC skIws (at the deepest kwls) and intcllipnce (as the latter isdefined by psychologrstsand psychometrmans) has been a toprc of great interest for many years. However. the full extent of the relationship may easily be missed if one relies on the traditional distinction between the constructs of language and intelligence and especially if one makes the common error of assocloting language too closely with spccch. The purposeof this paper is topocc.ifonlyforthesakeofargument. thequestion. could intelligence perhaps k language based after all? Dcfinitiansof intelligenceare easy to come by but hard to agm on. However, all thcorlsts seem to a g m on certain fundamental charactcnstics of intelligence and intelligent behavior Arguments and findings from kology‐particularly genetrs and also from the neurosciences are offered to at least support the plausibility of a deep relationship bctwecn language and intelligence. It is suggested that the formative power of words is somehow related to the simplest levels of biological organization and also the highest levels of human cognition. Support for this suggestion is drawn from psychometric studies as well as a content analysis of the construct “nonverbal” intelligence. Finally, some tentative inferences are offered to relate the foregoing arguments to the business of education.

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