Reflect on the readings. Do you have any questions about the texts? Are there any claims that you find problematic? Do you think language is a purely biological phenomenon? What parts of the brain are most important for the production and comprehension of speech? How do you conceptualize or process meaning? Do these readings inspire any special insights or motivations that could help advance your foreign-language abilities, retention, and recollection?
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The first reading "How the Brain Handles Language", used language and terminology that my brain couldn't handle! It is hard for me to grasp the idea that there is a correlation between your dominant hand and the level of ease at which you can learn a new language. If I were a scientist who understood all the included terminology, maybe I would understand the reading better. I think "How the Brain Handles Language" left me more confused than anything else; it was as if I was focusing too much on understanding all the science rather than understanding how your brain and learning a new language are connected. You're dominant hemisphere is said to be the most important for production and comprehension of speech. The dominant side is determined by your dominant hand. Though I think biology plays a big role in the language process, I think there are many other factors that come into play such as geographical location, or culture, etc. Moving onto the other readings, I never really thought about how singular words can have many meanings until you put them into sentences. This helps me better understand the ideas of syntax and morphology that we talk about in class as the building blocks of any language. A word can have many meanings, but once it is put into context, the amount of meanings decrease. This will definitely be a challenge when learning Catalan, assuming there are words that have multiple meanings.
I find it very interesting to read about the different parts of the brain. Doing this discussion post late, I had the advantage of being in the class where we talked about the different sides of the brain when I was asked to do a difficult math problem and I looked up and to the left, indicating that I was using the right side of my brain, perhaps indicating I was trying to think of a creative work-around to the problem instead of thinking about the logic of the mathematics.
I don't think language is strictly biological. Yes, humans have unique biological advantages that allow us to communicate much more effectively than other animals, but also language strongly depends on the fragmentation of cultures and groups of people. Language so strongly depends on context, and the way every culture and individual conceptualizes meaning is different. High-context cultures like that of the US rely heavily on things like irony, sarcasm, and emotional intelligence. I feel that emotional intelligence and grasping context is something I can improve on in both my native language and my target language.
The reading offers a lot of insights on how languages work
To begin with, the fact that having a different dominant hand makes one better at certain tasks was very interesting to me because I have been using both hands for writing and certain tasks since a young age. At first, I just thought it was strange for me to do so but later on I realized it is more related to how your brain works.
To answer the next question, I do believe language is biological strictly since the ability to acquire an actual complex language is hard-wired for us humans only. An infant does not gain the ability to speak after a year he/she was born but was born with the ability.
Biologically brain is crucial when it comes to language as that is where sounds are perceived and reproduced. More specifically the frontal, temporal, parietal lobes form what you want to say and the motor cortex, in your frontal lobe, allows you to speak. It most likely that these activities occur on the left side of your brain.
As for the How do We Mean, it brings out a crucial point when it comes to meaning of words: it is very contextual. In almost every language, one word can have more than one meaning also usage. For instance, "like" is a preposition but is also used as a verb to indicate preference but when it is used as a preposition it implies similarity.
I think the theory of language “localization,” that a single area of the brain is related to language, is problematic. And, seemingly, many linguists agree that many types of “subcortical connections” exist in the language process. Nor is language solely a left brain hemisphere or right brain hemisphere issue. While the left hemisphere has typically been identified as dominant in language, evidence suggests that the right hemisphere is also necessary due to its “capability for auditory analysis and comprehension.”
Biology certainly plays a key role in language, as demonstrated by certain areas of the brain being tied to different facets of language. Both Wernicke’s area and Broca’s area help with producing and comprehending speech specifically, and language is also given a sophisticated structure by the cortex, cerebellum, and thalamus. Yet, there are many different languages, and humans are not born speaking any of one of them. Language must be learned and replicated. Although biology plays a necessary role in language, the socio-cultural milieu in which one grows up also effects the development and understanding of language, in some cases limiting what one can express vis-à-vis a different language.
I think Aristotle was mostly right: the sound of a word generally has no relation to its meaning. However onomatopoeic words are certainly exceptions. And, it is possible that some of the earliest languages may have relied on onomatopoeia to communicate meaning, which would disprove Aristotle’s thesis. Overall, though, languages today do not exhibit any obvious link between their words and meanings. Thus, words do not actually make sense by themselves. Only within sentences does the meaning of a word become clear. Because of this previous point, I have realized that the classical approach of trying to memorize vocab lists for a language is not very effective. If I can find words in context, I will understand their meaning(s) much more so than seeing them in isolation in which they generally possess many meanings.
I was blown away that understanding and speaking language is quite a complex process inside the brain, yet, we are able to converse back and forth with ease. The human brain is a fascinating organ that researchers all around the world are still trying to understand the exact mechanisms of how these processes inside the brain work. Whether language is purely biological or not, I believe the brain’s ability to understand language, generate thought, and providing a verbal or non-verbal response is quite complex.
While some may learn languages easier than others, I believe it is motivation and perseverance that matters the most. Linguistic experts can dissect each part of the brain to examine whether Broca’s area for speech or Wernicke’s area for comprehension is activated, but I believe a growth mindset is the most important quality to have when learning a new language. Like with most other skills, failure is part of the learning process. If one may ignore the damaging emotions that come with failure and persist forward, then their foundation is strong enough to withstand any challenge. Even though I may not understand every detail in the readings, I can appreciate the complex biological processes that occur when I am learning a language.
The piece of text in How do we Mean reading when it commented about how some single words can convey too much meaning without have context is a good point. When we spoke in class of the three most important aspects in learning a language, grammar/structure was one of them. Connecting this to the reading, single words can have a variety of meaning but putting them into a structure or orderly sentence will limit the possibilities of meanings. Thus, it will allow for comprehension. Therefore, learning vocabulary is simply not enough to speak the language because there can be numerous meanings for one word. There needs to be some context surrounding that word. This further emphasizes the importance of grammar.
After reading both texts I have realized that speaking a language involves lots of things I was not considering.
Firstly, it is important to understand that for me, a left-hander it is the left hemisphere the one encharged of controlling the linguistic abilities, since the left side is more analytical, while the right is the one more creative.
I do not believe that language is purely biological, it is true that the brain has an important weight in this procedure and that it is a necessary condition, but there are other ideas important for the development of the language, as it is the culture. The culture is the responsible of the existence of several languages since it made humans organize in different groups and develop a language to communicate between them and express their needs and wants.
The brain is one of the most important parts for a language, and it is the broca´s area the one linked with speech production and articulation, and it os on the left hemisphere, as mentioned before.
According to the meaning I believe on Aristotle conventionalism point of view since he defended that there was not a relation between the sound and the meaning. Also, it is really important to get the difference between sense and reference, being ‘reference’ the ‘worldwide meaning’. Moreover, I learned that the 'word' is not a correct concept and we do not normally use it correctly, and it cannot be confused with the 'lexeme'.
Reading both texts have showed me that to learn a language needs an special procedure which is scientifically proven, and it showed me the different ways of understanding the meaning and that normally a context is needed since there are for example collocations, which need of different words to create a meaning.
Pablo Flores Montero