Book contents
- Life and Language Beyond Earth
- Reviews
- Life and Language Beyond Earth
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Preface
- How to Use This Book
- Part I Introduction
- Part II The Universe We Live In
- Part III Our Story on Earth
- Part IV The Runaway Brain
- Part V Language, Our Greatest Gift
- 20 Looking at Language
- 21 Talking about Language
- 22 The View from Linguistics
- 23 The Language Faculty and Languages
- 24 Language and the Brain
- 25 Acquiring Language
- 26 Humans and Animals
- Part VI Life and Language, Here and Beyond
- Book part
- Glossary
- Timelines
- Figure credits
- References
- Bibliography
- Index
24 - Language and the Brain
from Part V - Language, Our Greatest Gift
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 16 September 2023
- Life and Language Beyond Earth
- Reviews
- Life and Language Beyond Earth
- Copyright page
- Contents
- Tables and Figures
- Preface
- How to Use This Book
- Part I Introduction
- Part II The Universe We Live In
- Part III Our Story on Earth
- Part IV The Runaway Brain
- Part V Language, Our Greatest Gift
- 20 Looking at Language
- 21 Talking about Language
- 22 The View from Linguistics
- 23 The Language Faculty and Languages
- 24 Language and the Brain
- 25 Acquiring Language
- 26 Humans and Animals
- Part VI Life and Language, Here and Beyond
- Book part
- Glossary
- Timelines
- Figure credits
- References
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
The ability to speak a language rests on physical aspects of our brains. We can identify areas which are especially important for language, and we can examine individuals with language impairments to gain some insights into the manner in which knowledge of language is stored in the brain. This study of language in relation to the brain is called neurolinguistics. It is a special field which is becoming increasingly a focus of interest for linguists. It is true that it is not possible to pinpoint linguistic activity in the brain, to put the transmission of minute electrical currents between nerve cells in correlation with the production of language. Nor can linguistic structures be assigned to the information stored in these cells.
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- Information
- Life and Language Beyond Earth , pp. 399 - 409Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2023