Captain Planet, Saussure

Saussure claims that “there are no pre-existing ideas, and nothing is distinct before the appearance of language” (5). Fundamentally Saussure is saying that language is directly linked with thought, and therefore before we learned language we did not form thoughts. But does this mean that until we know language (either spoken or written) that we cannot form ideas and furthermore, cannot communicate. Take an infant for example. Prior to learning language does the child have thoughts? Is the child able to communicate? Looking back to Saussure, these questions are further developed in his statement by saying that “the characteristic role of language… [is] to serve as a link between thought and sound” (5-6). It is the connection between the thought and sound (the spoken words we hear) which give us language. Language enables us to communicate with people across the world. Although the written word may look different and the spoken word may sound different, the meaning underlying each word is universal. When an American and a Spaniard view a house, the word they use to describe it are ‘house’ versus ‘casa.’ Even though the two men may use different sounds, both words signify the same thing. In regards to an infant as mentioned before, research has said that babies have different cries to show they need different things. The sound of different cries is the child’s way of communicating. However, because the child is not communicating through spoken word, does that make his/her type of language less validated? Are the cries of the child an attempt to communicate through language? Or are the cries simply the infant’s body reacting to a physical need? I think to answer my own question about infants I need to do some research, but I guess the underlying question here is what defines what language is? Is language confined to the sophisticated written and spoken languages around the world? Or can language, as Saussure states it, be more primitive than that?