Language and the Rational Mind

Lily turned 2 and 1/2 this weekend, and we are seeing the Terrible Two's fade.   It's most noticeable when something that would cause major drama in the past goes by without incident.   We also notice it at restaurants and in public, where she's less likely to act up.   Finally, bedtime has also become an easier transition.

Another development we have noticed is more refined speech.    Yesterday she corrected her mom's grammar (a first):

Mom:  "Nate is playing with toys"
Lily:  "Nate is playing with one toy"

Actually, both were correct.   Mom was making a comment in the general sense and Lily was making a direct observation.  Lily missed subtlety of the wording, but managed to distinguish proper wording for single and multiple objects, which is very impressive.   It's revealing to where she's at linguistically, and remarkable to see first hand.

That's just one example though.   Overall, more of her speech is in sentences, rather than words or fragments.   For example, she says "I love you Daddy" rather than "love you", now.    It's developed language, not just memorized words.

My first instinct is to separate these two developments, language and rational thought, but nothing could be further from the truth.   While the brain definitely has some reserved space - built in coding - for language, it's still all bound to a rational view of the world.  

So, we can imagine a Unicorn (something that doesn't exist), but can't imagine that same Unicorn being to the left and right of us at the same time.   To express this, we can draw or offer a vivid verbal description of a Unicorn, but there is no way to relay the irrational and have another rational mind be able to envision it concretely (abstract/Cubist-style, maybe).  It's this basic understanding of how spatial relations work that grants us the ability to describe it to others and makes language viable.  

In Lily's grammar lesson, it's what allowed her to distinguish one and many.   These building blocks of the rational mind can identify one, two, many, as in one-bundle of sticks, three sticks, a pile of sticks, a pair of pants or a pair of socks.  It also allows her to break down or combine these groups, like when we separate a cup from the table it sits on, and a cup from the shards of glass it becomes if it falls to the floor.   This knowledge of numbers will eventually lead her to understand why waiting for two cookies later is better than getting one cookie now.  

While it's an evolutionary development process, not a on/off switch, for either piece (language & rational thinking), I think the evidence clearly points to language mostly arriving before rational thought processes.   Children can understand what adults are saying before they can say it.    It's possible that the language 'programming' is up and running, but needs that rational basis - centered around the development of the pre-frontal cortex (around the age of 2 to 3) - to really make everything click.