I found Crystal’s “How the Brain Handles Language” and “How We Mean and How We Analyze Meaning” to be very interesting and informative on linguistics. I’m really curious to learn more about the connections between hand dominance and the two different functions. Does it mean that people who are left handed have a higher chance of being good at artistic things whereas right handed people have a higher chance of being good at logical subjects like math? (although 90% of people are mainly right handed).
The most important parts of the brain responsible for the production and comprehension of speech is Broca and damages in the area would result in a reduced ability to do both these things. I find this very interesting too because I sometimes struggle with stuttering, so I’m curious if the two has anything to do with each other.
But conceptualizing or processing meaning seems to be very unconscious for me. I've never really thought about exactly how I am making connections between things and finding meanings. But I think processing or conceptualizing meaning is like having a very large and broad network. There is a lot of information, conscious or unconscious, stored in our brains, and when we see something that activates the memory of another, we start associating and linking them. It’s like in history class, we look at an artwork, and we’re able to infer the time period or event because we previously retained information about certain things. Maybe because this artist included this thing or that thing, the people are dressing this way, or the building’s architecture was a common style of that time.
And what I took from these readings was that retention is about building connections. If Broca’s area is about production, then speaking and writing more often should strengthen that “muscle memory.” I think that this mindset would help me recall vocabulary faster and stay motivated when the process feels slow, no matter what language I’m learning.
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