The Roles of the Brain and Mind to Language Development and Transmissions - Essay Example

MIND AND LANGUAGE Introduction Language is a system of oral-aural communication specific to the human race. With that, it holds a significant link of what made man distinct from other creature, his brain and mind. This paper aims to discuss the roles of the brain and mind to language development and transmissions, academic paradigms, theories, and perspectives behind the study of linguistics such as neurolinguistics and sociolinguistics, as well as the role of anthropological aspects including culture, environment, and geography. Examples of how language, brain, mind and beliefs influence human thought, feeling, behavior, and experience are also discussed. Language and Linguistics Language is a general phenomenon of which all naturally evolved large-scale linguistic system has as their fundamental medium orderly patterns of sound produced by the human voiced and perceived and processed by the ear. It defines the structural associations between the set of established symbols in the form of grammar. Making use of sound arbitrarily it tends to convey certain meaning depending on its user. Of which are studied in semantics. Linguistics being the science of language deals with grammar and semantics. It pursues knowledge of languages histories and origins. Its definition has been oversimplified with the concept that language operates through the element called words, more correctly defined as an element coupling a meaning and a pronunciation with fundamental independence. It was because of its complexity and nature to interpenetrate into various human faculties and institutions thoroughly that specific branches of linguistics have had to be developed to study the significant details within each aspect. As a Discipline The branch that studies the nature and mechanisms of human speech sounds independent of the meanings that they are supposed to convey was termed phonetics while nature and organization of the meanings express by human language outside speech sounds used to symbolize meanings was dealt in semantics. Morphology studies the formation and composition of words, syntax deals with the rules that determine how words combine into phrases and sentences and phonology encompasses sound system and abstract sound units. History and Evolution Linguistic had begun as early when the 3rd to 5th century when grammarians namely Tolkāppiyar of Tamil and Pāṇini of Indian devise part of 3,959 rules of Sanskrit morphology called Aṣṭādhyāyī. . It became the object of native grammatical investigation way back Pāṇini’s time. Being systematized and technical it had provide an intellectual model for European scholars. Sanskrit, an ancient language of religion, philosophy and literature was uncovered at times of English colonization during the 18th century. William Jones, the first European Sanskrit scholar, brought about the modern science of linguistics. From that, evolution and mutual relations of Sanskrit, Greek, and Latin, Germanic, Celtic and any supplementary Indo-European language were explored as well as Ural-Altaic language and other language families. Historical linguistics was significantly extended beyond Europe during the 20th century. That and the development of mathematics, science and formal system led to many attempts to formalize the study of language into semantic codes that further led to the discipline called linguistics. Significance to Humanity The fact that the language exclusively speaks of human unlike other science, would justify its special relation to other social science. Its relation to culture resulted to anthropological linguistics and ethnolinguistics, its relation to society to sociolinguistics, while psycholinguistics relates language to mind. Language and philosophy held by special connection explained in philosophy of language. The attempt to address all related human science could be endless. Methodology of fields as diverse as speech therapy, translating and language teaching as well as practical use of linguistics were all dealt with applied linguistics. Mathematical linguistics deals with formal properties of language, statistical linguistics pertains to use of probability theory to various analytical problems considering quantitative significance, while computerization of its data were to computational linguistics. Neurolinguistics is dedicated to the study of anatomy and physiology of the human brain as correlative to specific levels and patterns of language organization. Mind and Linguistics There had been a vast connection between language and other disciplines. Of which are created by the same set of minds, of the same anatomical brain process, within the diverse yet interrelated beliefs. These and the extensive studies between language and human brain, mind and belief serves as substantial evidence of their essential link. Hale and Tager-Flusberg, with the hypothesis that syntactic and semantic properties of sentential complements would facilitate the development of a representational theory of mind, conducted the study entitled The influence of language on the theory of mind. Having sixty preschoolers as their subjects, they have proved their hypothesis with a result showing that those trained on sentential complements have acquired both knowledge on linguistics and theory of mind tasks. On the contrary, those trained for theory of mind acquires no linguistic knowledge while those trained on relative clause gain no improvement on theory of mind post-test. Their study establishes a conclusion that language particularly sentential complements do influence the theory of mind. However their results revealed that this connection to mind maybe limited to that particular aspect of language alone. Their findings hold a considerable similarity with Slade and Ruffman’s How language does( and does not) relate to theory of mind with latter supporting a bidirectional relation between language and theory of mind, being consistent with the idea that both syntax and semantics contribute to false belief understanding (Slade and Ruffman). Jane Curson, an existential psychotherapist, thoroughly discussed on her literary Mind the Gap how language is related and inseparable with humanity. She had quoted several authorities to convince the reader with her facts. Jacques Lacan to discuss the connection between unconsciousness and language, philosopher Donald Davidson to explain that language acts as it directs our thinking. Wittgenstein’s work as well as Heideggers’s was cited. In the end she had convinced the reader of how fundamental language is to what we are. It showed how conversation paved the way to mental ability in children. Language and Children’s Understanding of Mental States by Harris, Rosnay and Pons had provided a substantial connection between language and mind by exposing elaborating how language ability in children aids their understanding the mind. Furthermore, it had shown that conversation rich in mentalistic words and concepts are as just as effective of a support. Tardif, Kaciroti and Wing-Chee So conducted two studies with Cantonese-speaking preschoolers on their research called Language and false belief: Evidence for general, not specific, effects in Cantonese-speaking preschoolers. This was with their aim to examine J. de Villiers’s (1995) hypothesis that syntactic complements play a unique role in the acquisition of false belief (Tardif, et al). It ends up with the conclusion that there language and false belief are connected however semantic or syntactic independently were no prerequisite on the development of false belief understanding. Milligan, Astington and Dack on Language and Theory of Mind: Meta-analysis of the relation between language ability and false-belief understanding provides new significant dimension on the established fact that children’s language ability and their false belief are interconnected. It some how presents a conflict on what the study with Cantonese-speaking children by Tardif et al had implied coming up with an observation that based on their meta-analysis that five aspect of language including general, semantics, receptive vocabulary, syntax, and memory for complements held their individual relevance with false belief. Far more imperative is that there was effect each aspect has on false-belief varied in strength, topped by memory of compliments. This divergence maybe attributed to the different type and size of subject this study has compared with the one by Tardif et al, the former having English-speaking subjects. A study on cognitive psychology with its aim to explain the connection between aspects of neuroscience, found that communication significantly relates to personal beliefs and values. With the title Intercultural Interaction: Cognitive and behavioral aspects, Marcello might not intend to focus on language but its significant relevance makes it impossible to discuss cognition and behavior as well as covey her message without passing through language. Study on mental disorder just like on normal individuals display considerable relevance between language and communication. Basic behavioral science research for mental health, Thought and Communication provides an in depth discussion on human intelligent behavior of which is comprise of thinking, reasoning and problem solving ability as well as ability to utilize language in order to commune. This might explain why language disorder such as dyslexia apparently impairs mental development creating a subtle yet significant link between communication and thought. Deeley on The religious brain implies how communication could influence a person’s belief and values. Mentioning the how development of culture had been historically made possible with language evolution, it does not however limit the theory of mind to language’s influence alone. Related observations were obtained form studies on Young children’s understanding of different types of beliefs by Flavell et al. Their text expound how children’s beliefs are formed through conveyed message form others through language. Important properties of language and cognition had been evident in some studies on metaphors. The mere involvement of the word comprehension would suffice as a proof of the link. Despite conflicting presentation, it has been presented both in Olson as well as Kennedy’s work the fact that language and mind are inseparable. The presented studies profess an undeniable relation between spoken and written words with human thought. The data and conclusion they present allows as not just to take a glimpse rather strongly convince us how language plays significant role in thought acquisition. Different aspects of language including syntax, semantics, etc. had been tackled all of which supports the idea this texts aims to convey. Despite their contribution, that fact that they aimed, if not incidentally, relay was so apparent that the sole idea that language could determine the nature of thought might justify that fact. Being the avenue used to communicate our thoughts to others and thoughts themselves are often understood in verbal form, close relationship between language and thought became so apparent. Sapir-Whorf hypothesis both on Linguistic Determinism and Linguistic relativity can be applicable to many aspect of human existence. Edward Sapir, an anthropologist and a linguist, influenced by a study on Hopi Indians language and its lack of concept of time came up with an argument that perception instinctively resulted from language. Their argument can be summarized as semantic representations that determine aspects of conceptual representations were utilized by different languages. Whorf’s Linguistic Relativity hypothesis implies that the language one converse in makes one see things differently from those who converse in other languages might as well indicating that the term we used to name an object determines how we comprehend it. Linguistic Determinism defines a spontaneous impact from linguistic model on cognition. Despite the implication that some verbal cognition includes influence from language, it does not claim an irreversible direction. An investigation on the effects of language on the development of form perception and recognition by Carrol and Casagrande (1958) back up Whorf’s claim while Greene (1975) criticized by arguing that the bias was due to the tendency to rely on literal translation. Other studies further support Whorf’s hypothesis tackling on labels used by certain cultures leading to diverse perception with other cultures supporting the claim that development of language leads to formation of thoughts. Eventually known as Whorfianism had endured enormous criticism due to its failure to explain how thought can be interrelated to language and his unreliable methodology that had made his claims so vague. Piaget was amongst those in the opposition arguing that thought actually comes before language. Explaining that a child’s ability to talk comes after the developing the ability to comprehend. Brunner’s support this idea as the three modes of seeing the environment has been presented. Symbolic representation, enactive or the idea of how to do something, and iconic or the picture memory can all be used to facilitate man’s control over his surroundings. This was supported by Sinclair De-Zwart (1969), furthermore the latter modes by Brunner backed up by human history. Another hypothesis was that language and thought comes from different roots but were uniting with age. This was presented by Vygotsky and eventually agreed by Piaget, with the explanation that self motivation develops into inner speech at the age of seven. The development of neuroscience tends to interpret language and linguistic, somehow supporting Whorf’s argument that had once become latent. Franz Boas observed that only a part of a whole concept could be denoted in each particular language. Moreover, this part had been selected among other mental view of image and then further conveyed by the articulation of thought. Paul Kay finds danger within the idea that different perceptions on the same subject can be conveyed by two different languages thus proposing that Whorf’s claim could only be applicable to the analysis within a culture opposed to cross-cultural contrast. Kay and cultural linguists Bivens and Berk supports the argument that Whorfian hypothesis exist on a personal level. Furthermore, many psycholinguists believe the Whorfian theory can be applied to a cross-cultural study, of which include Brown and Lenneberg with their claim that some colors are more recognized and remembered than others while Slobin et al worked on picture to arrive on the same conclusion. Conclusion Despite the continuous improvement of many discipline and their success to explain all aspect of humanity, the ability to think remains partially covered. To date, language far exceed in unraveling that ambiguity with the claim that thoughts are held by inevitable patterns, of which are unconscious scheme of his own language evident in open association with and against other language. Being a living proof of such strong relevance between mind and language, it would be impossible to deny claims of their relation. However, existing facts and complex explanations may keep things vague, for all we know, the simplest observation is all what it requires. Source: Basic Behavioral Science Research for Mental Health, Thought and Communication Clark, A. (2006). Material Symbols. Philosophical Psychology. Vol. 19, no. 3, June 2006, pp. 291-307 Curzon, J. (2005). Mind the Gap, An existential-phenomenological investigation into language and syntax. Existential analysis 16.1: January 2005. Deeley, P. The Religious Brain, Turning ideas into convictions. Doherty, M.J. Selecting the wrong processor: A critique of Leslie’s Theory of mind mechanism-selection processor theory. Douglas, K. How not to say what’s on your mind: Inhibiting the linguistic transmission of biases and stereotypes. Flavell, J. et al. Young Children’s Understanding of Different Types of Beliefs. Hale, C., Tager-Flusberg, H. The influence of language on theory of mind: a trainging study. Harris, et al. Language and Children’s Understanding of Mental States Jacobs, S. Michael Polanyi, Tacit Cognitive Relativist. Kennedy, J. M. Methaphor-Its Intellectual Basis Lindquist et al. Language and Perception of Emotion Marcello, M. Intercultural Interaction: Cognitive and Behavioral Aspects Milligan, K et al (2007).Language and Theory of Mind: Meta-Analysis of the Relation between Language Ability and False-belief Understanding. Neir Parr-Davies. The Sapin-Whorf Hypothesis: Critique. Retrieved September 26, 2008 from http://www.aber.ac.uk/media/Students/njp0001.html Olson, D. R. Or What’s Metaphor For? Skotko, B. Something to Talk About: Relationship between Language and Thought form a Cross-Cultural Perspective. Retrieved from September 26, 2008 from http://www.duke.edu/~pk10/language/ca.htm Slade, L, Ruffamn, T. (2005) How language does ( and doe not) relate to theory of mind: A longitudinal study of syntax, semantics, working memory and false belief. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. 2005 The British Psychological Society, 23, 117-141 Tardif, T. et al (2007) Language and False Belief: Evidence for General, Not Specific, Effects in Cantonese-Speaking Preschoolers. Developmental Psychology. Copyright 2007 by the American Psychological Association vol. 43. no.2 318-340 The relationship between language and thought. 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