The readings opened my eyes to show me how the process of language truly works. It’s such a “normal” part of my life that I didn’t realize how complicated it could all be when looking at it from a neurological stance. From my previous psychology class, we were taught that we should know that the left hemisphere is the “intellectual” side and that the right hemisphere is the “creative” side, so at first, I found that the claims in chapter 27 were problematic. As I kept reading, I realized that it was just an oversimplification and that most takes need both sides of the brain to properly do the tasks.
I do think that language is a biological phenomenon because as humans, I believe that a way of communication is key to survival. It doesn’t necessarily have to be through spoken words because some of my friends communicate to be through signals and sounds, but we all yearn for other people to understand us. Even animals have their own way of communicating with each other and we surely didn’t require them to be in classes to learn how to meow or bark.
The Broca’s area is the lower back part of the frontal lobe that is important for the production of speech. This means that if it were damaged, the person’s ability to speak and say what they want will be restricted, but they can still understand people clearly. The Wernicke’s area is located in the upper back of the temporal lobe to the parietal lobe of the brain and it is important for the comprehension of speech. If this area were to be damaged, the person’s ability to understand others would be difficult, but they would still talk without trouble. Furthermore, the Exner’s centre which is in the back of frontal lobe is the motor control of writing and the back of the occipital lobe (the retina) is important for visual input and its process. When looking at how meaning is processed, there are multiple stages our brain goes through even though the specifics are difficult to describe. First there is an initial intention to communicate. Then the structure of the words in the sentence must be represented. We need to use our muscles to say the words and finally we must hear back the feedback.
Throughout the readings, I began to realize how interesting the concept of language was. Some cultures have a specific word to describe an action while others have to explain in a sentence what they’re doing. Koreans have a word to describe that they are done with work that day and that they’re leaving. In America, people say that “I’m heading out” or similar ways to depart from their workplace. Also, Koreans have a different word for pretty much every family relationship and it even differs whether that person is on the mom’s side or the dad’s side. When looking at different languages, you can look at the world from a different perspective. Even within the same country and language, slightly differing vocabulary can associate with a different “sense” of meaning. Words and sentence structure can also convey new meanings. The reading motivate me that I can truly advance my language abilities.
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