1. Brain & Language

2. Neurolinguistics
is "the study of the relationship between language and the brain." (Yule, 1996).
Brain:
It is the most complicated organ of the body;
it lies under the skull and
it consists of approximately 10 billion nerve cells (neurons) and billions of fibers that interconnect these cells according to specific and highly selective patterns.

3. Parts of the brain:
Corpus callosum, consisting of about two million nerve fibers, connects the two hemispheres;
the left hemisphere and the right hemisphere.
The left hemisphere controls voluntary movements of the right hand and foot and the right hemisphere the movements of the left side.
(contra-lateral relationship)

4. Broca's area: (The anterior or speech cortex)
Broca's area is crucially involved in the production of speech;
Paul Broca reported in the 1860s that damage to this specific part of the brain was related to extreme difficulty in producing speech, but damage to the corresponding area on the right hemisphere had no such effect.
Then language ability must be located in the left hemisphere.

5. Wernicke's area: (Carl Wernicke)
Wernicke's area is part of the brain crucially involved in the understanding of speech;
damage to this part of the brain was found among patients who had speech comprehension difficulties

6. The motor cortex
The motor cortex generally controls movement of the muscles (i.e. for moving hands, feet, arms).
Close to Broca's area is the part of the motor cortex that controls the articulatory muscles of the face, jaw, tongue, and larynx.

7. The arcuate fasciculus
A bundle of nerve fibers … forms a crucial connection between Wernicke's area and Broca's area.

8. Lateralisation
is the term used to refer to any cognitive functions that are primarily localised to one side of the brain or the other.

9. The critical period (the period from birth to puberty)
Lateralization process begins in early childhood.
During childhood (up until puberty) there is period when the human brain is most ready to 'receive' and learn a particular language. This period is referred to as the critical period.
A child must learn a language during this period to gain normal, native competence in the language.

10. Language lateralization indicates that there is something about the left hemisphere which predisposes it for use in language production.
The predisposition of the left hemisphere for language is an indication that in children the left hemisphere is open to language learning.
As the child's brain matures and the patterns of neural activity become set, the readiness for language learning which was once present becomes less and less available.
The loss of flexibility can have two results:
It becomes more and more difficult to a second language after the critical period that it was as a child.
If a child is not exposed to language during childhood it may become impossible to later learn language.

11. The localization view
Specific aspects of language ability can be accorded specific locations in the brain; different human abilities and behaviors are traceable to specific parts of the brain.
The localisation view is one way of saying that our linguistic abilities have identifiable locations in the brain;
Any damage to one area of the brain appears to have repercussions in other areas.
Brain activity involving hearing a word, understanding it, then saying it would follow a definite pattern.
1.The word is heard and comprehended via Wernicke's area.
2.The signal is then transferred via the arcuate fasciculus to Broca's area where preparations are made to produce it.
3.A signal is then sent to the motor cortex to physically articulate the word.

12. An experimental technique
An experimental technique which has demonstrated that, for the majority of subjects tested, the language functions must be located in the left hemisphere is called the dichotic listening test.
Anything experienced on the right-hand side of the body is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain and anything on the left side is processed in the right hemisphere.
(Severe damage to the left hemisphere can lead to paralysis of the right side of the body.)
A signal coming in the right ear will go to the left hemisphere and a signal coming in the left ear will go to the right hemisphere.

13. Dichotic listening
Dichotic listening test uses auditory signals. Subjects hear two different sound signals simultaneously through earphones.
The subject may hear "crocodile" in one ear and "alligator" in another ear.
The subject may hear a horn tooting in one ear and rushing water in the other.
When asked to state what they heard in each ear:
linguistic stimuli delivered directly to the right ear
but
nonverbal stimuli delivered to the left ear.

14. Right ear advantage for linguistic sounds:
when asked to say what was heard, the subject more often correctly identifies the sound which came via the right ear.
(ga -dog sounds via the left ear/ da-cat sounds via the right ear)
process: a language signal received through the left ear is first sent to the right hemisphere and then has to be sent over to the left hemisphere (language center) for processing.

15. The right hemisphere:
primary responsibility for processing a lot of other incoming signals of a non-linguistic nature.
(non-verbal sounds (e.g. music, coughs, traffic noises, birds singing) are recognized more often via the left ear (i.e. processed faster via the right hemisphere.)
the right hemisphere handles non-verbal sounds and
the left hemisphere handles language sounds.
Analytic processing is done with the 'left brain';
Holistic processing is done with the 'right brain'.

16. Aphasia
Aphasia is defined as an impairment of language function due to localized cerebral (i.e. brain) damage which leads to difficulty in understanding and/or producing linguistic forms.
Aphasia is the neurological term used to refer to any acquired language disorder that follows a focal (localised) brain lesion caused by a stroke, a tumor, a gunshot wound, or an infection.
Someone who is aphasic has interrelated language disorders, in that difficulties in understanding can lead to difficulties in production.

17. Broca's aphasia (motor aphasia) expressive difficulties
A substantially reduced amount of speech, distorted articulation and slow, often effortful speech.
Broca's aphasics suffer from an inability to plan the motor sequences used in speech.
When they attempt to speak, they speak haltingly and have a hard time getting the words out.
The frequent omission of functional morphemes (e.g. articles, prepositions, inflections) (agrammatic)
I eggs …and eat and … drink coffee .. breakfast
My cheek … very annoyance …main is my shoulder … achin' all round here …

18. Wernicke's aphasia (sensory aphasia; receptive disorder)
Difficulties in auditory comprehension
Production of a very fluent speech which is, however, often difficult to make sense of .
There is a tendency for Wernicke's aphasics to produce semantically incoherent speech;
numerous instances of lexical errors (word substitutions) and often phonological errors.
 Often these patients speak nonsense or in circumlotions
I can't talk all of the things I do, and part of the part I can go alright, but I can't tell from the other people.

19. Conduction aphasia (Damage to the arcuate fascilucus.)
Individuals suffering from this disorder typically do not have articulation problems, They are fluent, but may have disrupted rhythm because of pauses and hesitations.
Comprehension of spoken words is normally good.
The patient will be able to understand utterances but will not be able to repeat them.
The task of repeating a word or phrase (spoken by someone else) will create major difficulty.
What is heard and understood cannot be transferred to the speech production area.

20. Anomia
Difficulty in finding the correct words; circumlocutions may be used as in this answer (to the question "What's ink for?"): to do with a pen.
Defects in the ability to name objects that are presented to them (auditorially or visually).
Circumlocutions are expressions which people use when they are unable to name the word they want.
"what you drink for "water"
"what we smell" for "nose"

21. Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon
Tip-of-the-tongue phenomenon in which you feel that some word is just eluding you, that you know the word, but it just won't come to the surface. Speakers generally have an accurate phonological outline of the word, can get the initial sound correct and mostly know the number of syllables in the word.
Uncommon terms or names- our "word-storage" may be partially organized on the basis of some phonological information and that some word in that "store" are more easily retrieved than others.
There are often strong phonological similarities between the target word and the mistake.

22. Malapropism
Mrs. Malaprop in a play by Sheridan who consistently produced 'near-misses' for words, with great comic effect.
We need a few laughs to break up the monogamy.
The word the speaker used is the one they intended to use though it is semantically incorrect.
It is not a performance error but a competence error since the speakers have incorrect beliefs about the meaning of a particular word.

23. Slip-of-the-tongue (production errors)
Any inadvertent flaws in a speaker's use of his or her language.
Tangled expressions such as a long shory stort
(for to make a long story short)
The thine sing (the sing thing); Use the door to open the key; Fifty-pound dog of bag food

24. Spoonerism
William Spooner at Oxford University was renowned for his tongue-slips.
Noble tons of soil; You have hissed all my mystery lectures
A shoving leopard to his flock.(God);
(Oscar Wilde) Work is the curse of the drinking class.
Noman numeral;
A tup of tea;
The most highly played payer;
Beel fetter; Stick neff

25. Slips-of-the-ear
Slips of the ear involve the misperception of a single segment or phonetic feature.
How the brain tries to make sense of the auditory signal it receives.
Great ape (grey tape);
Gladly the cross I'd bear
(A bear called Gladly who was cross-eyed.);
Death in Venice (deaf in Venice);
A coke and a Danish (a coconut Danish)

26. Genie
Genie, a child who was discovered at the age of 13 in 1970, is an example of this second result.
She was 13 years old and had spent most of her life tied to a chair in a small closed room.
Her father was intolerant of any kind of noise and had beaten the child whenever she made a sound.
Her mother was forbidden to spend more than a few minutes with the child to feed her.
Genie had spent her whole life in a state of physical, sensory, social and emotional deprivation.
She received virtually no linguistic stimulation from ages 1 to 13.
Even after 11 years of intense instruction her linguistic ability was not normal.
Within a short period of time, she began to respond to the speech of other, to try to imitate sound and to communicate.
Her syntax remained very simple.
Genie had no left-hemisphere language facility, but was using the right hemisphere of her brain for language functions. She had a very strong left-ear advantage for verbal as well as non-verbal signals.