[C] The language centers
① Broca’s area (French surgeon and anatomist): The frontal lobe in the left cerebral hemisphere damaged extreme difficulty in producing speech;
[Speech production deficit] word-finding difficulties and problems with syntax
② Wernicke’s area (German physician, 1874): Strengthened Broca’s claim, and generated intense interest in the hypothesis that different areas within the left hemisphere fulfill different linguistic functions
[Speech comprehension deficit] difficult in understanding speech (posterior speech cortex)
③ The angular gyrus（角形脑回）: It is responsible for converting a visual stimulus into an auditory form and vice versa
The word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke’s area. This signal is then transferred via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca’s area (the angular gyrus), where preparations are made to produce it. A signal is then sent to the motor cortex to physically articulate the word.
④ language perception, comprehension and production
[D] The critical period for language acquisition ß neurobiologist Eric Lenneberg
It refers to a period in one’s life extending from about two to puberty, during which the human brain is most ready to acquire a particular language and language learning can proceed easily, swiftly, and without explicit instruction.
Language faculty of an average human degenerates after the critical period.
{Language can be acquired after the critical period.}
[E] Early views on language and thought
Mentalistà thought and language were identical, proposed by Plato
Empiricistà languages were signs of psychological experiences (Aristotle)
Bloomfield, American psychologist, founder of Behaviorism, supported the mentalist: thinking was a system of movements that had been reduced from actual speech to the point where they were no longer visible.
Violates the following two phenomena:
Non-speaking humansà display complex thought process
I didn’t mean to say that
The Sapir-Whorf hypothesis: (the American anthropologist-linguist Edward Sapir and his student Benjamin Lee Whorf)
“We cut nature up, organize it into concepts, and ascribe significance as we do, largely because we are parties to an agreement to organize it in this way—an agreement that holds throughout our speech community and is codified in the patterns of our language.”
Linguistic determination—the strong notion: Language determines thought
Linguistic relativism—speakers of different language perceive and experience the world differently, i.e. relative to their linguistic background
This hypothesis appears plausible, but its strong version has very few adherents today.
Whorf did not only depend too heavily on the literal use of words but also on grammatical structure.
The weaker version is accepted. Language may be used to provide ideas, bring about a change in beliefs and values, solve problems, and keep track of things in memory. Language does influence the perceptions, memory tasks, and other verbal and nonverbal behavior of human beings by its convenience, availability, and habitual use.
[F] Argues for and against the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis
① Words and meaning: Relation is arbitrary; without the particular words of snow doesn’t mean he can not perceive differences in varieties of snow…
② Grammatical structure
Many grammatical features of a language are purely superficial aspects of linguistic structure. They don’t have the kind of interdependent relationship with the perceptual system of the speakers of that language. (Grammatical gender)
③ Translation
Successful translation between languages can be made.
That he (Sapir) can explain/describe Hopi concepts in English for an average English speaker to understand easily fully proves that translation can be obtained.
④ Second language acquisition
Bilingualism: have a consistent conceptual-perceptual system of the physical world. Don’t have to have double minds.
⑤ language and world views
People who use the same language may have different world views.
People who use different languages may have the similar world views.
One language can describe many different world views.
[G] Understanding the relationship between language and thought
① functions of language:
Interpersonal communication: convey information, thoughts, feelings from one to another
Intrapersonal communication: language facilitates thinking, speech behavior, and action for the individual
Halliday: ideational, interpersonal and textual functions
a) Informative
b) Interpersonal function
(1) Performative function
(2) Emotive function