Kurt Goldstein (1878-1965) Selected Papers (1971)
The problem of the meaning of words based upon observation of aphasic patients (1937)
…
3. With respect to the main problem here discussed, we find the seemingly so simple function of naming objects does not present a simple superficial connection between a thing and a word.
4. The fact that the loss of the meaning of words is accompanied by such a great change in the world of the patient shows clearly that language does not merely reflect the world to the mind, but that it is a means itself for building up the world in a particular way, i.e., in the abstract categorical way. We are reminded of Wilhelm von Humboldt's saying. "Language never represents objects themselves, but the concepts which the mind has formed of them in that autonomous activity, by which he creates language."