As I have pointed out in several posts in the forum, language is a learned skill. Likewise, the concept of naming objects is a sub-set of this learned language skill. While the bi-directional loop from frontal-motor-planning back to the experiential stream in the temporal lobe is common to most (all?) mammals the higher degree of connectivity to support speech seems to be uniquely human.
I think all mammals have this substrate for “simple” consciousness.
So I support cezar_t’s assertion that the substrate for language exists without necessarily exhibiting this learned behavior. It does not have to have GOFAI symbols to do what it does.
In particular, the many maps at the top ends of the WHAT & WHERE (dorsal and ventral) streams end up in the posterior portion of the temporal lobe. I see the combination of the contents of the maps in that area to be the spacial and temporal contents of the fragments of speech, organized into a syntactically correct stream by the corresponding motor planning parts of the frontal lobe. Each map is the smallest fragment of speech - somewhat like letters in a word. These contents are experienced by the portions of the medial temporal lobe to be registered as the “here and now” portions of episodes in the EC/HC complex. (See the Arcuate_fasciculus tract below for corresponding cortical locations)
Language is not a given in humans and we are greatly diminished without it:
See Ildefonso discovering naming below:
Note the various speech areas connected to this fiber bundle: