Editing Language and thought (section)

== Language of thought ==
[[Language of thought hypothesis|Language of thought theories]] rely on the belief that mental representation has linguistic structure. Thoughts are "sentences in the head" and so take place within a mental language. Two theories work in support of the language of thought theory. Causal syntactic theory of mental practices hypothesizes that mental processes are causal processes defined over the syntax of mental representations. [[Mental representation|Representational theory of mind]] hypothesizes that propositional attitudes are relations between subjects and mental representations. In tandem, these theories explain how the brain can produce rational thought and behavior. All three of those theories were inspired by the development of modern logical inference. They were also inspired by [[Alan Turing]]'s work on causal processes that require formal procedures within physical machines.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Birjandi|first=Parvis|title=A Review of the Language-Thought Debate: Multivariant Perspectives|journal=Islamic Azad University (Science and Research Branch)|via=EBSCOhost}}</ref>

The language of thought hypothesis hinges on the belief that the mind works like a computer, always in computational processes. The theory believes that mental representation has both a combinatorial syntax and [[compositional semantics]]. The claim is that mental representations possess combinatorial syntax and compositional semantic—that is, mental representations are sentences in a mental language. Turing's work on physical machines implementation of causal processes that require formal procedures was modeled after these beliefs.<ref name=":0" />

Another prominent linguist, [[Steven Pinker]], developed the idea of a mental language in his book ''[[The Language Instinct]]'' (1994). Pinker refers to the mental language as "mentalese". In the glossary of his book, Pinker defines mentalese as a hypothetical language that is used specifically for thought. The hypothetical language houses mental representations of concepts such as the meaning of words and sentences.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://stevenpinker.com/publications/language-instinct|title=The Language Instinct (1994/2007)|last=Pinker|date=2007|publisher=New York, NY: Harper Perennial Modern Classics}}</ref>