A.
INTRODUCTION
Language and the Brain
Language are the
essential components of the human intellect. These are the principal devices that enable
individuals to formulate their thoughts and virtually communicate them to
others. The concept of language, which we tend to take for granted, is often
appropriately phrased “the window of the mind”.
Through language, we
can analyzing, interoperate, and express the world around us. Ostensibly, it is
easy to assume that the basis of language lies in the lips, the tongue, or the
ear. However, deaf and mute people are also capable of possessing language in
its entirety. Sign language, which is dependent upon visible gestures rather
than distinct sounds, is an infinitely creative form of communication (as well
as its verbal counterpart).
There are many theories
that hypothesize language acquisition. However, they all revolve around the
human ability of complex thought. This enormous potential takes root in an
organ of the same infinite magnitude: the brain. Language acquisition is one of
the essential subjects of cognitive science.
B.
LANGUAGE
AND THE BRAIN
1.
Language Processing in Human Brain
Human brain is
exceptionally complex and simple at the same time. Its extremely composite biological structure results itself in human everyday behavior that many people
might consider rather simple than complex. In our research we will concentrate
on the ways how a human brain can process English and other human natural
languages because taken in general sense the ability to speak English or other
human languages is only serious distinguishing feature that rises humans over
the rest of the world making a human an intellectual being.
On the purpose of our
research we consider natural language as naturally formed symbolic system
completely independent of these symbols’ physical nature that is a little more
general than a common natural language definition. The principles of natural
language processing in human brain are most important for us if we want to
build equally powerful artificial general intelligence.
We start with the
features of human brain neurons and neural networks, and step by step create a
computer model of human brain networks that is able to process and generate a
reasonable speech. We can’t give a detailed explanation of human brain functionality
in this short article. Moreover, it is not our goal, and such research is not
complete yet. The main result of our research is revealing the principles how
tiny single neurons working together can produce intellectual-like behaviour
that exhibits itself in proper speech comprehension and generation in
accordance with current context.
2.
Language as
Shaped by the Brain
It is widely assumed that
human learning and the structure of human languages are intimately related. This
relationship is frequently suggested to be rooted in a language-specific
biological endowment, which encodes universal, but arbitrary, principles of
language structure (a universal grammar or UG). How might such a UG have
evolved? We argue that UG could not have arisen either by biological adaptation
or non-adaptationist genetic processes.
The resulting puzzle
concerning the origin of UG we call the logical problem of language
evolution. Because the processes of language change are much more rapid
than processes of genetic change, language constitutes a “moving target” both
over time and across different human populations, and hence cannot provide a
stable environment to which UG genes could have adapted.
We conclude that a
biologically determined UG is not evolutionarily viable. Instead, the original
motivation for UG the mesh between learners and languages arises because language
has been shaped to fit the human brain, rather than vice versa. Following
Darwin, we view language itself as a complex and interdependent “organism,”
which evolves under selectional pressures from human learning and processing
mechanisms.
That is, languages are
themselves undergoing severe selectional pressure from each generation of
language users and learners. This suggests that apparently arbitrary aspects of
linguistic structure may result from general learning and processing biases, independent
of language. We illustrate how this framework can integrate evidence from
different literatures and methodologies to explain core linguistic phenomena,
including binding constraints, word order universals, and diachronic language
change.
In human beings, it is the
left hemisphere that usually contains the specialized language areas. While
this holds true for 97% of right-handed people, about 19% of
left-handed people have their language areas in the right hemisphere and as many as 68% of them have some language
abilities in both the left and the right hemisphere.
The brain acts as
"command central" for language and communication, controlling both physical and mental components of speech. Steps that
trigger speech: Many areas of the brain
work together to control speech, as illustrated. The specific regions used
differ slightly for reading aloud or engaging in conversation. The
visual cortex (1A) is engaged when reading
aloud while the auditory cortex (1B) predominates during conversation.
The two hemispheres are
thought to contribute to the processing and understanding of language: the left hemisphere processes the linguistic meaning of
prosody (or, the rhythm, stress, and intonation of connected speech), while the right hemisphere processes the
emotions conveyed by prosody.
Studies of children have
shown that if a child has damage to the left hemisphere,
the child may develop language in the right hemisphere instead. The younger the child, the better the recovery. So,
although the "natural" tendency is for language to develop on the left, human brains are capable of adapting to
difficult circumstances, if the damage occurs early enough.
The
first language area within the left hemisphere to be discovered is Broca's
area, named after Paul Broca, who discovered the area while studying patients
with aphasia, a language disorder. Broca's area doesn't just handle getting
language out in a motor sense, though. It seems to be more generally involved
in the ability to process grammar itself, at least the more complex aspects of
grammar. For example, it handles distinguishing a sentence in passive form from
a simpler subject-verb-object sentence, the difference between "The boy
was hit by the girl" and "The girl hit the boy."
The
second language area to be discovered is called Wernicke's area, after Carl
Wernicke, a German neurologist who discovered the area while studying patients
who had similar symptoms to Broca's area patients but damage to a different
part of their brain. Wernicke's aphasia is the term for the disorder occurring
upon damage to a patient's Wernicke's area.
C.
CONCLUSION
Comparison
of the views of co evolution of language and brain has a two sided result. On
one hand brain has been shaped by and for language and has become “brain of the
language”, and on the other hand, language has changed to better suit
communicative demands offered by the users and learning acquisition of children
and has become “language of the brain”.
Babies’
brain is primed to learn language and it does this by making pathways and
stronger connections, which may extend upto the age of 10 years. The two
classical language areas, Broca’s and Wernicke’s, are important brain areas for
language processing but many other LH and RH parts of the brain are involved in
the task. The usage of these parts depend on language used, task performed
(name or recognize), conceptual category of items (unique, common, familiar),
modularity of input and output (spoken language or sign language) and number of
languages known to individual.
For
optimal retrieval of words of different categories different anatomically separable
regions are involved, while for concept retrieval some regions are consistently
associated. This says partial segregation of different categories. The LH is
found to be dominant in language processing with many tasks affected by LH
lesions. But overall composition of language, in some sense, is distributed
over the two hemispheres. LH is generally related to fine aspects of sentence
processing and literal meaning and RH to visual spatial abilities.
The
standard LH areas may be common to all natural languages but the final
organization of language system appears to be determined by the exact language
experience of the individual. In case of bilinguals the age of acquisition of
language and language environment seems to effect the language organization.
Different brain areas may be recruited for different languages. But when
proficiency is kept constant, age of acquisition doesn’t seem to have much
effect.
From
various studies and results mentioned, it can be concluded that language is not
a function restricted to one hemisphere of the brain, but both the Left and the
Right hemispheres have their own vital role in language processing. When the
parts of the two hemispheres perform their respective tasks, some areas of
brain take the charge of leader and lead them to the completion of task
successfully. The overall organization of language in brain depends upon the
individual and the proficiency and the way he had acquired the language.
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