[Josh]

You put a significant amount of weight upon linguistics in developing your model of what consciousness is. Words, undoubtedly shape how we think as we generate constructs (words) to describe what it is that we are thinking, and one can argue the expansion of vocabulary has increased our ability to think and thereby increase our ability to communicate to others. While all of that is good, it does not address the human consciousness question. Chomsky described his LAD, which states that we are innately designed for speech, a reported hallmark of higher functioning beings. This can be evaluated by analyzing neuroarchitecture, not all levels of consciousness are the same. Animals who have advanced architecture such as von economo neurons certainly process things internally with their own form of reason. These animals may not have formed an alphabet and created poetry ( as far as we know) but the internal process is there as evidenced by fMRI. We all should be careful in how we measure the intelligence and consciousness of animals, especially when the scales we create are based upon human physiology. Using those standards it is possible that we would label an alien space traveling species as not having a conscience.. I digress . Humans have the highest functioning neural architecture on our planet, and this remains so even in the absence of language ( spoken) or the ability to hear it. The internal dialog may be less colorful or exacting due to the lack of descriptive modifiers ( words) but yet it remains present in reasoning and thought. As to the question of what is consciousness is a rather complex one. In my opinion, the first step to understanding humam consciousness is to eliminate instinctual impulses from the equation of reasoning. An example would be emotions, fight or flight reflexes, maternal instincts ( natural law as well.. according to my research) as well as all presynaptic settings. Our reasoning individual mind sits atop of those impulses, engaging in a tug of war over action. Involuntary vs voluntary mind if you will. I wrote a book on this subject, although there is much more we need to know in order to isolate what human consciousness is, although I am fairly certain that it is not dictated by speech.. only assisted.