I am not a science person at all, so the first reading about how the brain handles language was interesting, but not particularly striking to me. Despite that, I did enjoy the portion that analyzed neurolinguistic processing and detailed just how complex producing a common piece of dialogue can be. To be quite frank, I don’t think it is possible to create a diagram or structure representing how the brain processes and creates language. I might be completely wrong, as I don’t know much about science or how the brain works on a neurological level, but the phenomenon of speech seems so complex and so hard-wired into our brains that developing some kind of visual diagram seems tricky, at best.
I enjoyed the reading about meaning quite a bit. I think it’s fascinating how different cultures can have words that symbolize something specific and don’t exist in other languages. When I’m learning a language, I tend to think in terms of a direct exchange. The English word “chair” becomes the French word “chaise,” and so on. I’ve had to learn how to separate my English abilities from my French abilities and just focus on one at a time. If I try to create an English sentence, then translate it into French, I lose some of the meaning or the eloquence I would have had if I had just gone right into French. I needed that reminder as I move into learning Turkish. I can use English to help create connections between words, but I can’t expect Turkish and English to line up perfectly.
I also enjoyed the portion where the author discussed ways to change the meaning in a sentence, whether that’s capitalizing certain words or changing the intonation. I would be interested in pursuing that line of research a bit more, especially as it concerns the way language works on the Internet. I’ve found that some social media sites (Tumblr, mainly) have a specific way of talking or expressing meaning that would be meaningless to someone who does not frequent the site. But for the users who interact with each other daily, the way they speak and the phrases they use become almost like inside jokes. I think that would be very cool to look into.
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