Is there any other kind? You often hear “…I thought to myself…” and I wonder if there is any other kind. I even say it myself! If you think about something you are obviously thinking about it to yourself, it would be rather difficult to think something to another person. You can definitely think about another person but you can’t think to another person. Our thoughts are our own so why in English do we say that we thought to ourselves? It is proper to differentiate between those we speak to by adding a pronoun and where better suited a proper noun but to think is not to speak. Thinking hopefully comes before speaking. I suppose that collectively a group of individuals can think on a subject and that is what we are differentiating in the case of thought. But in that case we would be ‘thinking with.’ One would not say that he is thinking to a group of friends, he would say that he was thinking with a group of friends. So why do we say we think to ourselves? Is it proper? I think it is redundant.
My mother says that two fish and I have the ability to think to each other. I suppose that is true at times; I have an idea or a thought and with a raise of the eyebrow (a very good looking eyebrow) he has the same thoguht or idea.
ReplyDeleteGirls share thoughts in a similar manner, however I think that when this happens they are still 'thinking to themselves' while also sharing that thought with another girl.
ReplyDeleteWell, I do beleive it is possible to be thinking out loud. So in a way when you are thinking out loud you could be thinking to someone in order to bounce ideas off them. Whether or not it is a good thing to speak your thoughts out loud before you have processed them is another story all together.
ReplyDelete