THE BRAIN AND LANGUAGE
Language is a function of the peculiar structure of the human brain.
Several areas of the brain are involved with linguistic skills, such as
producing and understanding speech and it can be considered a
compartmentalized process since we may see people with brain damage in
specific areas have difficulties with very specific aspects of language.
Human brains are functionally asymmetrical and many areas essential for
speech production are concentrated in one hemisphere. Most language
areas are concentrated in the left hemisphere
BROCA’S AND WERNICKE’S AREA IN THE BRAIN
There are two major areas of the human brain that are responsible for
language: Broca's area found in the frontal inferior lobe ( third frontal
gyrus) considered partially responsible for language production (putting
together sentences, using proper syntax, etc.) and Wernicke's area found
in the right parietal lobe or temporal lobe and is responsible for language
comprehension and processing (untangling others' sentences and analyzing
them for syntax, inflection, etc.).
Broca's area is a region of the brain responsible for speech production.
The importance of Broca’s area in producing language has been
recognized since Paul Pierre Broca reported impairments in two patients
he encountered. They had lost the ability to speak after injury to the
posterior inferior frontal gyrus of the brain. Since then, the approximate
region he identified has become known as Broca’s area, and the deficit in
language production as Broca’s aphasia. In general, they can deduce the
meanings of sentences from general knowledge, but cannot understand
sentences whose syntax is essential to their meaning. They are fully aware
of their difficulties and the rest of their faculties are unimpaired.
Aphasia is caused by damage to developmental issues in anterior regions
of the brain, including (but not limited to) the left inferior frontal region
known as Broca's area.
Sufferers of this form of aphasia exhibit the common problem of
agrammatism. For them, speech is difficult to initiate, non-fluent,
labored, and halting. Similarly, writing is difficult as well. Intonation and
stress patterns are deficient. Language is reduced to disjointed words and
sentence construction is poor, omitting function words and inflections. A
person with expressive aphasia might say "Son ... University ... Smart ...
Boy ... Good ... Good ... "
Wernicke's area is one of the two parts of
the cerebral cortex linked since the late nineteenth century to speech. It is
traditionally considered to consist of the posterior section of the superior
temporal gyrus in the dominant cerebral hemisphere (which is the left
hemisphere in about 90% of people), located as the posterior section of the
superior temporal gyrus. Wernicke's aphasics are able to produce generally
grammatical sentences, but they are often nonsensical and include invented
words. They have difficulty in showing understanding others' speech and
naming objects; they commonly produce the names of related objects or
words that sound similar to the object's name.. In this condition there is a
major impairment of language comprehension, while speech retains a
natural-sounding rhythm and a relatively normal syntax. Language as a
result is largely meaningless.
Wikipedia- adapted