LANGUAGE AND BRAIN
LANGUAGE AND BRAIN
Neurolinguistics
The relationship between language and the brain.
Where is language located in the brain?
How it all started?
1848: discovery of language ability is located in the left part of the brain
Construction foreman Phineas P. Gage
Parts of the brain that are related to language functions are in the areas above the left ear.
Brain stem: connects the brain to the spinal cord
Corpus callosum: connects the two hemispheres
Left hemisphere
Right hemisphere
Parts of the brain
Two
halves: left and right hemisphere
Parts of the brain
(1) Broca’s area
Anterior
speech cortex
named
after the 19th century physician Paul Broca
who reported that damage in this area was related to difficulty in speech
production.
(2)
Wernicke’s area
Posterior
speech cortex
named
after Karl Wernicke, a German neurologist and psychiatrist who, in 1874,
discovered that damage to this area could cause speech comprehension
difficulties.
(3)
Motor cortex:
Controls the movement of the
muscles (for moving hands, feet, arms, etc. as well as muscles of the face,
jaw, tongue, and larynx.
Involved in the physical
articulation of speech
Two neurosurgeons: Penfield and
Roberts (1959)
(4)
Arcuate
Fasciculus
A bundle of nerve fiber
Wernicke’s discovery
Connection between Broac’s
area and Wernicke’s area
The Localization View
Specific
aspects of language ability can be accorded to specific locations in the brain
Wernicke’s
area --> Arcuate
fasciculus --> Broca’s
area --> Motor cortex
Depend
on indirect methods
Tip of the tongue
Slips of the tongue and ear
Aphasia
Dichotic listening
The critical period
Tip of the Tongue
When we feel that some words are
eluding us, we know the word but it just won’t come out
Initial sound, number of
syllables, phonological information
‘Word storage’ system maybe
partially organized on some phonological basis
Malapropism
A malapropism
is the incorrect use of a word by substituting a similar-sounding word with
different meaning, usually with comic effect.
Named after Malaprop
(in a play by Sheridan)
Examples:
"Eastern and Specific
Time." (i.e
"Pacific")
"I resemble
that remark!" (i.e. resent)
"Yeah, I super-size
with you." (i.e. sympathize)
Slips of the tongue
Spoonerisms:
the interchange of two sounds. Named after William Spooner.
‘You have hissed all my mystery
lessons.’
A long shory
stort
(a long story short)
A fifty-pound dog of bag food
Black bloxes
Tup of tea
Not
random- indicate different stages of linguistic expression
How
the brain makes sense of auditory signals.
Great ape
instead grey tape
Gladly the cross I’d bear
Last modified: Wednesday, 30 September 2020, 11:50 AM