LL-L 'Language proficiency' 2006.07.29 (03) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 29 July 2006 * Volume 03
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From: Sandy Fleming <sandy at scotstext.org> 
Subject: LL-L 'Language proficiency' 2006.07.26 (03) [A/E]

>From: 'Jacqueline Bungenberg de Jong' <Dutchmatters at comcast.net>
>Subject: LL-L 'Language proficiency' 2006.07.26 (10) [E]
>
>Hi Sandy,
>That is very interesting. Some months ago you tried to explain to me how
>sign language and spoken language were different. I would have thought that
>sign language is not only "let your fingers do the talking", but that you
>must also use different parts of your brain to offer your thoughts. You must
>be so familiar with both modes of communication that they both can run in
>the background at the same time. But what happens when the dog scratches
>your knee to let you know that he wants to go out? What an interesting
>puzzlement! Jacqueline
>
Of course, it's not just the scratch on the knee is it? It's the eyes
and the pathetic look and the frequent glances towards the door :)

I read an article recently on scientific research where the researchers
concluded that manual languages and spoken languages "used different
parts of the brain". A careful read of what they actually did seemed to
reveal less sensational conclusion, however: they had subtracted the
language-processing areas from the scans of brain activity and the
results showed that sign language perception involved the parts of the
brain which processed visual information, while oral language perception
involved the parts which processed aural information. But it still means
that the language processing is done by the same part of the brain.

It's an interesting conclusion for linguistics as a whole - it would
mean that language and the medium are distinct, that sound isn't an
integral part of language, and other media (certainly a visual medium)
could be developed into a full human language.

Sandy Fleming
http://scotstext.org/

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