What is Language? · A shared symbolic system for purposeful communication ? Symbolic: there are units to reference something else o Shared: it is common among a group of people o Purposeful: to communicate and translate thoughts · Language allows for flexibility o Languages Adapt to the Environment Vocabulary shaped by environment and culture Morphology (complexity) decreases with languages spoken by more people Lexical tones are partly determined by climate · Aphasia o Impaired language function from brain injury · Broca's = speech production Wernicke's = speech comprehension Connected by the arcuate fasciculus · Broca's aphasia and patient Tan o Expressive aphasia Intact language comprehension Impaired speed production and articulation ? First described in Patient Tan Could only speak one syllable (Tan) Still tried to communicate via gestures, tone, inflection Large lesion in the left inferior frontal gyrus · Broca's area · Broca's aphasia ? Speech is halted and difficult to produce ? Mostly just nouns and verbs · Typically writing is affected in a similar manner · Impairments range from deficits in producing certain words -> problems generating all forms of language ? Depends on amount of damage to Broca's area · Wernicke's aphasia o Impaired language comprehension, both written and spoken o Posterior superior temporal lobe damage, typically left hemisphere ? Language content is not meaningful nor comprehensible ("word salad") · Symptom: Paraphasias ? Verbal: substituting a word with something semantically-related ? Swapping term brother for sister ? Phonemic (literal): swapping or adding speech sounds ? Calling crab salad: sad cralad o Neologisms: using a made-up word ? Mansplain · Conduction Aphasia
o Neural pathway between Broca's and Wenecke's area o Production and comprehension intact but impaired repetition Load dependent: deficits will increase with longer and more complex sentences · Language and Lateralization O Aphasia indicates that language is left lateralized o Data indicating up to 70% of left-handed people demonstrate left hemisphere language dominance o Prosody and pitch, mood, attitude, gestural communication are supported by the right hemisphere · Right hemisphere seems to be important for higher-order non-literal language use ? Example: Speech prosody (the music of language) · Evidence: Right-hemisphere lesions disrupt ability to interpret and express prosody of speech o Problems understanding the emotion of a phrase o Problems understanding sarcastic speech A patient comes to the clinic with some language problems. You ask this person to name some common items. For example, you point to a pair of shoes for them to name and they respond "feet-houses". What type of aphasia would you think this person has? a. None, they are simply using a cultural neologism b. Broca's c. Wernicke's d. Conduction aphasia · Language acquisition - are we pre-equipped with language capabilities? o Nurturist view: no. language is acquired through the same mechanisms as skill learning · Language acquisition is skill or associative learning Explicit training of language Trial and error reinforcement as well a modeling other people shapes language Naturist view(Chomsky): yes. we are born with the innate capacity to learn language