Language and the Brain

Language and the brain ## Neurolinguistics ● neurolinguistics – The branch of linguistics concerned with the brain mechanisms that underlie the acquisition and use of human language; the study of the neurobiology of language. ● neurolinguistics – The study of the relationship between language and the brain ## Language areas in the brain # Broca’s area “anterior speech cortex” (1) ● Broca’s area – a part of the brain in the left hemisphere involved in speech production * ○ damage to this specific part of the brain was related to extreme difficulty in producing spoken language # Wernicke’s area “posterior speech cortex” (2) ● Wernicke’s area – a part of the brain in the left hemisphere involved in language comprehension *damage to this part of the brain was found among patients who had speech comprehension difficulties. # The motor cortex (3) and the arcuate fasciculus (4) ● motor cortex– a part of the brain that controls muscle movement ● arcuate /ˈɑːkjuːɪt,-ˌeɪt/ fasciculus /fəˈsɪkjʊləs/ – a bundle of nerve fibers connecting Broca’s area and Wernicke’s area in the left hemisphere of the brain # The localization view ● localization view – the belief that specific aspects of linguistic ability have specific locations in the brain Nasim Sarker, Dept. Of Linguistics, 21-22 session, university of Chittagong ○ The word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area. ○ 2. This signal is then transferred via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area where preparations are made to generate a spoken version of the word. ○ 3. A signal is then sent to part of the motor cortex to physically articulate the word. ## Tongue tips and slips Minor production difficulties may provide possible clues to how our linguistic knowledge is organized within the brain. # The tip of the tongue phenomenon ● tip of the tongue phenomenon – the experience of knowing a word, but being unable to access it and bring it to the surface in order to say it ● malapropism / ˈmæləprɒpˌɪzəm/ – a speech error in which one word is used instead of another with a similar beginning, end and Nasim Sarker, Dept. Of Linguistics, 21-22 session, university of Chittagong number of syllables (e.g. medication used instead of “meditation”) # Slip of the tongue ● slip of the tongue – a speech error in which a sound or word is produced in the wrong place, as in “black bloxes” (instead of “black boxes”) ● spoonerism – a slip of the tongue in which two parts of words or two words are switched, as in “a dog of bag food” (for “a bag of dog food”) # Slips of the brain ● perseveration – a type of slip of the tongue in which a sound carries over from one word to the following word(s), as in black bloxes (“black boxes”) ● anticipation – a type of slip of the tongue in which a sound is used in a word in anticipation of that sound in a following word, as in a tup of tea (“cup of tea”) ● exchange – a type of slip of the tongue in which sounds in two words are switched, as in you’ll soon beel fetter (“feel better”) Nasim Sarker, Dept. Of Linguistics, 21-22 session, university of Chittagong # Slip of the ear ● slip of the ear – a processing error in which one word or phrase is heard as another, as in hearing great ape when the utterance was “gray tape” ## Aphasia ● aphasia – an impairment of language function due to localized brain damage that leads to difficulty in understanding and/or producing language # Broca’s aphasia ● Broca’s aphasia – a language disorder in which speech production is typically reduced, distorted, slow and missing grammatical markers ● agrammatic speech – the type of speech without grammatical markers, often associated with Broca’s aphasia #Wernicke’s aphasia ● Wernicke’s aphasia – a language disorder in which comprehension is typically slow while speech is fluent, but vague and missing content words ● anomia1 – a language disorder in which it is difficult to find words, often associated with Wernicke’s aphasia # Conduction aphasia ● conduction aphasia – a language disorder associated with damage to the arcuate fasciculus in which repeating words or phrases is difficult Nasim Sarker, Dept. Of Linguistics, 21-22 session, university of Chittagong ## Dichotic listening ● dichotic listening – an experiment in which a listener hears two different sounds simultaneously, each through a different earphone # Left brain, right brain ● right-ear advantage – the fact that humans typically hear speech sounds more readily via the right ear. ## The critical period ● lateralization (lateralized) – divided into a left side and a right side, with control of functions on one side or the other (used in describing the human brain) ● lateralization, lateralized –Terms used to refer to cognitive functions localized to one or the other hemisphere of the brain. ● critical period – the time from birth to puberty during which normal first language acquisition can take Nasim Sarker, Dept. Of Linguistics, 21-22 session, university of Chittagong