Linguistic Intelligence: Meaning, Signs and What Research Shows

Where the idea comes from

Gardner described linguistic intelligence in Frames of Mind (1983) as the intelligence of the poet, the writer, the lawyer and the public speaker: a feel for the meanings, sounds and rhythms of words, and skill at using them to explain, persuade and remember. One of his arguments for treating it as a separate intelligence was that language can be lost after damage to particular areas of the brain while other abilities survive.

How it sits next to musical, interpersonal and intrapersonal intelligence, and the rest of the list, is covered in our guide to types of intelligence.

Signs and examples of linguistic intelligence

These illustrate the definition; they are not a diagnostic checklist:

• A large, precise vocabulary. Knowing many words and choosing the exact one.
• Enjoying reading and wordplay. Puns, crosswords, word games, quotations.
• Explaining clearly. Telling a story or making an argument that others follow easily.
• Remembering words. Recalling what was said or written, names and exact phrasings.
• Writing easily. Getting thoughts onto the page in an organised way.
• Learning languages. Picking up the grammar and sounds of another language relatively quickly.

What happened when it was tested

The most direct test of Gardner’s theory is a 2006 study by Beth Visser, Michael Ashton and Philip Vernon in the journal Intelligence. They gave 200 adults two tests for each of Gardner’s eight intelligences plus a test of general mental ability. For linguistic intelligence they used a Vocabulary test and an Opposites test, in which people write as many words as they can that mean the opposite of a target word within a time limit. The results, from the full data in Visser’s thesis:

• Strongly tied to general intelligence. Both word tests correlated significantly with the general ability test and loaded between .40 and .60 on the general factor that ran through all the reasoning tests — the g factor.
• But more than general intelligence. After the general factor was removed, the two word tests still correlated .29 — the largest such figure of all eight intelligences. Visser concluded that, despite their substantial link to g, the two tests shared a significant amount of ability unrelated to it.
• Separate from spatial ability. Neither word test correlated significantly with either spatial test, which Visser read as some support for Gardner’s distinction — while noting that a university sample may have exaggerated it.
• People knew their verbal ability. Self-ratings of linguistic ability were significantly related to both word tests, though only moderately. On a self-report questionnaire, participants rated themselves higher in this area than in any other.

So linguistic intelligence comes out of the direct test better than most of Gardner’s list: it looks like a real, coherent ability. It just is not independent of general intelligence, as the theory originally claimed. That fits the standard hierarchical model, in which a broad verbal ability sits underneath g.

Language and IQ tests

Language is close to the centre of intelligence testing. In Visser’s review of the research, vocabulary measures are among the best single predictors of general intelligence, and the manual of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (third edition) reports that Vocabulary has the largest g loading of its eleven subtests. Gardner has argued that this is partly because IQ tests lean heavily on words — but in the 2006 study, non-verbal spatial and classification tests were just as strongly tied to general intelligence as the word tests were.

Vocabulary is a form of crystallized intelligence: knowledge built up from exposure. That is why it behaves differently from fast reasoning across the lifespan. In an analysis of over 48,000 online participants and standard IQ-test norms, Joshua Hartshorne and Laura Germine found that processing speed peaked in the late teens, while vocabulary peaked around age 50 in the test norms and around 65 in the online data.

Is language the same as thinking?

Gardner’s brain argument has held up. A 2016 review by Evelina Fedorenko and Rosemary Varley looked at people with global aphasia, who after brain damage have almost no ability to understand or produce language. Despite that, they could add and subtract, solve logic problems, think about another person’s thoughts, appreciate music and find their way around. Brain imaging in healthy adults points the same way: the language areas work hard when people understand a sentence, but not during arithmetic, working-memory tasks or listening to music. Language is a distinct system in the brain — even though, in healthy people, verbal ability and general reasoning tend to go together.

Is it really an intelligence?

Few people doubt that verbal ability is real; it has been part of intelligence research for a century, long before Gardner. The dispute is over his claim that the intelligences are independent of each other. Critics such as Lynn Waterhouse argued in 2006 that the theory lacks adequate empirical support; Gardner and Seana Moran replied that the critique misreads it. For linguistic intelligence specifically, the evidence supports a distinct verbal ability and a distinct brain system, but not independence from general intelligence.

Careers that use it

Gardner’s own examples are writers, poets, lawyers and public speakers. Career lists add journalist, editor, teacher, translator, interpreter, speech and language therapist, copywriter and broadcaster. Treat these as illustrations of work that depends on language skill, not research findings. For a structured look at work that fits you, try our career test.

How to develop linguistic skills

• Read widely and often. Vocabulary grows from meeting words in context. Our article on whether reading makes you smarter looks at what the research shows.
• Write regularly. Journals, letters, summaries of what you have read — and revise them.
• Learn another language. It trains attention to grammar, sounds and meaning.
• Talk, argue and explain. Debating or teaching forces you to put ideas into clear words.

Expect these to improve the language skills you practise. There is no good evidence that word games or puzzles raise general intelligence.

What an IQ test measures here

Many IQ tests include verbal items such as vocabulary, analogies and verbal reasoning, so they do capture part of what Gardner calls linguistic intelligence. They do not measure writing, storytelling, persuasion or how fast you learn a new language. Our test measures reasoning with patterns, numbers and words; for examples of item types, see our guide to IQ test questions.

Trust and scope notes

This page summarises published research for general information. The 2006 findings are reported from the full data in the author’s thesis, including its review of earlier research; the aphasia and lifespan findings are reported from the published papers. Nothing on this page assesses language development, a learning difficulty or any medical condition — concerns about speech, language or reading are a question for a doctor, a speech and language therapist or an educational psychologist. The IQ Revealed test is an online reasoning test of 40 original items for adults aged 18 and over; it is not a clinical assessment.

IQ Revealed is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to Howard Gardner, the publishers of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale, the Educational Testing Service (publisher of the Opposites test) or the other researchers, universities, journals and publications named on this page.