I would like to be reminded of the word which means ‘those who understand the world best via the written word and language generally’.

It may be a word derived from a linguistic or psychological discipline.  It is a longish word, over 8 characters.

I hope to find this out this evening for a report I am writing.

Thanks.

Billy,

The only words I can think of which apply to this kind of person are "intellectual" and maybe "theoretician". For example, Lenin and Trotsky were theoreticians because they read Karl Marx’s writings, mainly Das Kapital and The Communist Manifesto and then they tried to determine what Marx really meant by true Communism based on his writings. There is often a certain amount of narcissism  in this job because you have to believe that you have brains and education to think these things through which ordinary people don’t have.

Otherwise you might want to give us some more examples of what you mean.  :)

I think you are talking about something like these different "learning styles" ae meant to represent!

Read/write (R): This preference is for information displayed as words. Not surprisingly, many academics have a strong preference for this modality.

VARK

Sitran

Is vark a kind of pig?  ;D

Brazilian dude

Billy,

Another word related to what you are looking for might be "literati." The Mandarin scholars of pre-Communist China are sometimes referred to in Chinese history as "The literati."

http://www.onelook.com/?loc=pub&w=literati

Another term I’ve heard used in this sense is "Book-Smart." I believe it to mean a person who knows what they know (or think that they know) from reading rather than having first-hand experience.

Theo