Small talk each other until replication happens.
.
Yes.
Young children learning to talk copy the labels given to objects and items as demonstrated by everyone around them.
Call an item “that”
The child will also call it “that”
“Would you like that?”
“Yes, my want that”
Could be pointing at a ball, apple, glass of milk and so on.
You asked if thoughts are ours.
I think not. Not really.
I believe we are taught.
Example,
Walking along a street with terraced houses on either side with my son when much younger.
We walked passed two items on the ground,
A football,
A paper receipt.
Nobody else was around. Didn’t know who the items belonged to.
I asked my son if he thought it was okay to pick up the football and walk away with it, claim ownership.
He said no.
I asked him if it was okay to pick up the receipt and walk away with it.
He said yes.
I offered that both the receipt and the football belonged to someone.
He said he thought one had value to someone (football)
And one had been discarded (receipt)
He constructed his answer through what he’d been taught about right and wrong (from us, his parents)
He is taught what to think.
His young friend at the time (who wasn’t with us) my son thought, would have taken the football because he’d have wanted to play with it and it appeared that nobody owned that football.
My guess is we are handed our thoughts by everyone we interact with.
Perhaps it’s how we arrange or believe them.