Words, sentences, paragraphs, theses. When human evolution, emergently, happened upon language, a new, uniquely human type of evolution began. Without language self-awareness (not the same as knowing that it is you in the mirror, which some other species can do) is not possible. With language it is virtually inevitable. When I do something and then say that I am doing it (so, for example, someone who cannot see what I am doing will know) then I am self-conscious.

Funny how hard it is to see something that is right under ones nose (the sound made in ones mouth). How hard it is to grasp something that is right at ones fingertips on the keybroad.

Or, in the case of Helen Keller, just the fingers. She felt that she began to live only once she learned to listen and speak with her hands at the age of seven. How can one construct a story of self without language structuring memory? Isn't that true of all of us (at a somewhat earlier age)?

Descarte was on the right track when he said (in the French language), "I think, therefore I am." There is no thinking without language.