Language and

The Brain

COMMUNICATE

- a special branch of linguistics which studies the physical structure of the brain as it relates to language production and comprehension

http://www.psc.edu/science/Goddard/goddard.html

So do dolphins, monkeys, apes and humans. So do dolphins, monkeys, apes and humans.

Speaking the Written Word

Speaking the Heard Word

Dichotic Listening

- an experimental technique that has demonstrated a left hemisphere dominance for syllable and word processing.

The tip of the tongue phenomenon

- speakers generally have an accurate phonological outline of the word, can get the initial sound correct and mostly know the number of syllables in the word.

- mainly occurs with uncommon words and names.

Example:

transcendental medication

fire extinguisherfire distinguisher

transcendental meditation

Slips of the tongue

- sometimes called “spoonerism” after William Spooner- are often simply the result of a sound being carried over from one word to another

Example:

long story shortlong shory stort

use the door to open the key

use the key to open the door

loop before you leak

look before you leap

Slips of the ear

- this may provide some clues to how the brain tries to make sense of the auditory signal it receives

Example:great ape

gray tape

'Don't cry for me, Marge and Tina’.

'Row, row, row your boat…Life is a but a dream’.

'Row, row, row your boat…Life's a butter dream’.

‘Don’t cry for me, Argentina’.

Aphasia

Serious Disorders in Brain Function

- an impairment of language function due to localized brain damage that leads to difficulty in understanding and / or producing linguistic forms

Common Cause:

• stroke through traumatic head injuries from violence or an accident or an may have similar effects• brain tumors• infections

Broca’s Aphasia • also called ‘motor aphasia’• reduced amount of speech, distorted articulation and slow, often effortful speech• frequent omission of functional morphemes and inflections• often consists almost entirely of lexical morphemes

Example:I eggs and eat and drink coffee breakfast.

Ah ... Monday ... ah, Dad and Paul and Dad ..went... hospital. Two ... ah, doctors ... and ah ... thirty minutes ... and yes ... ah ... hospital. And, er, Wednesday ... nine o'clock. And er Thursday, ten o'clock ... doctors. Two doctors ... and ah... teeth. Yeah,... fine.

Wernicke’s Aphasia

• also known as ‘sensory aphasia’• the type of language disorder that results in difficulties in auditory comprehension

Example:Examiner: What kind of work have you done?-- We, the kids, all of us, and I, we were working for a long time in the... You know... it's the kind of space, I mean place rear to the spedawn...

Examiner: Excuse me, but I wanted to know what kind of work you have been doing.-- If you had said that, we had said that, poomer, near the fortunate, porpunate, tamppoo, all around the fourth of martz. Oh, I get all confused.

Conduction Aphasia

• individuals suffering from this disorder sometimes mispronounce words, but typically do not have articulation problems

Example:

velitision for television

vaysse for base

fosh for wash

When did you learn to

speak?

First language Acquisition

Language acquisition is the study of the processes through which learners acquire language. By itself, language acquisition refers to first language acquisition, which studies infants' acquisition of their native language.

Caregiver speecha - a characteristically simplified

speech style adopted by someone who spends a lot of time interacting with a young child.- featured with the use of question, often using exaggerated intonation, extra loudness, and a slower tempo with longer pauses.

Cooing and Babbling

-the earliest use of speech-like sounds has been described as cooing; - create sounds similar to the consonants (k) and (g) and high vowels similar to (i) and (u)

-between six and eight months, the child is able to produce a number of different vowels and consonants such as ba-ba-ba and ga-ga-ga which is described as babbling.

One-word stage

- is characterized by speech in which single terms are uttered for everyday objects.

Example:milk cookiecat cupspoon

Two-word stage

- this can begin around eighteen to twenty months, as the child’s vocabulary moves beyond fifty words.Example: mommy come

daddy sitbaby eat

Telegraphic Speech

- characterized by strings of words in phrases or sentences

Example:this shoe all wetcat drink milkdaddy go bye-bye

Developing morphology

By the time a child is two-and-a-half years old, he or she is incorporating some of the inflectional morphemes that indicate the grammatical function of the nouns and verbs.

Example:

cat sittingmommy reading bookfootsmansgoedcomed

Developing syntax

- young children are able to use syntactic structures on their own way.

Example:Adult: The owl who eats candy runs fast.Child: owl eat candy and he run fastAdult: I'm having this little one. Child: Me'll have that.

Developing semantics

One interesting feature of the young child’s semantics is the way certain lexical relations are treated.

Example:Hyponymy

animal – dog – poodle plants – flowers – rose

I come it closer so it won’t fall.(bring it closer)

Mommy, can you stay this open?

(keep this open)

When did you learn the English language?

Second Language Acquisition

- deals with acquisition of additional languages in both children and adults.

Acquisition vs. Learning(Krashen)

Acquisition is a process by which children unconsciously acquire their native language.

Learning is a conscious knowledge of a second language, knowing the rules, being aware of them, and being able to talk about them.

ApproachesGrammar-translation methodVocabulary lists and sets of grammar rules are used to define the target of learning, memorization is encouraged, and written language rather than spoken language is emphasized.

It involved a systematic presentation of the structures of the L2, moving from simple to the more complex, in the form of drills that the student had to repeat.

Audiolingual method

Communicative approaches- it’s partially a reaction against the artificiality of ‘pattern-practice.’

- it’s against the belief that consciously learning the grammar rules will necessarily result in an ability to use the language

Communicative Competence

- the general ability to use language accurately, appropriately, and flexibly.

Grammatical competence

Concentration on grammatical competence only, however, will not provide the learner with the ability to interpret or produce L2 expressions appropriately.

Sociolinguistic CompetenceThe ability to use appropriate

language.

Strategic CompetenceThe ability to organize a

message effectively and to compensate, via strategies, for any difficulties.

Applied Linguistics

- is an interdisciplinary field of study that identifies, investigates, and offers solutions to language-related real-life problems.