But also, if concepts are “words,” this makes it easier to see how thoughts connect to language. When you utter a word like “giraffe,” you are simply expressing the concept or mental “word” of giraffe that is in your mind. As we form mental words, we are, of course, trying to understand the nature of the things we are encountering, to grasp the very essence that makes something a giraffe. That isn’t something we can achieve simply by forming a concept, though. Since we are limited
