In thinking about how the brain processes language, from the initial sound wave going into the ear to the neural comprehension in Wernicke's area and formation of words in Broca's area and the motor cortex, finally to the emission of the word from the mouth, language is not pinned down to one area of the brain or one process. Once words are emitted, even then there are the differing levels of semantic or phonetic or grammatical rules we must be aware of while speaking. When I think about learning Kannada, I suppose I had thought of learning a language as learning words and phrases to communicate - but along with semantic meaning comes culture. For example, in southern India, there are words for my sister and her husband which are different from my brother and his wife. There are different words for older sister and younger sister, and each has its own meaning, because family has historically been a part of Indian culture, a more communal culture, I might say, than our American one. I liked out the article put it on page 188 - "Different languages 'parcel out' the world in different ways." In France, for example, you dont say, "How are you?" You say, "ca va?" ("it goes?") and asking literally how are you would elicit a long explanation of the person's day.
As I learn Kannada, I hope to keep in mind these differences in semantic meaning that vary from my culture to Indian culture, and to learn to use word meaning in a way that Indians would, that reflects their lifestyle and their culture.
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