Language in the Brain: Critical Assessments / Edition 1

by Fred C.C. Peng

Overview

This book assesses current assumptions about how language is acquired, remembered and retained as impulses in the brain, from the perspective of neurolinguistics, which is based on neuroanatomy and neurophysiology. Fred C. C. Peng argues that language is behaviour, which has evolved in human genetics through time. Like all behaviours, language utilises many body parts which are controlled by the cortical and subcortical structures of the brain. Language in the brain is memory-governed, meaning-centred, and multifaceted. This view is a challenge to conventional neuroscience, which sees language and speech as separate entities; such a convention is not consistent with how the brain functions. Dr Peng's study of language in the brain has wide-reaching implications for the study of language disorders, neurolinguistics, and psycholinguistics in dealing with dementia, aphasia, and schizophrenia. This cutting-edge research monograph presents challenging new insights in the field of neuroscience to a linguistic audience and will also benefit neuroscientists. It will be essential reading for academics researching any aspect of language and the brain.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780826487018
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	01/14/2006
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.81(d)

About the Author

Fred C.C. Peng is a behavioural neuroscientist in the Department of Neurosurgery and the Neurological Institute at the Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taiwan. As an anthropologist specializing in linguistics, he did post-doctoral work in the basic sciences and medical sciences.

Table of Contents

IntroductionI. What Is Language? 1.A Brief History of Linguistics: What Went Wrong? 2. Historical Perspective from the Point of View of Semiotics3. Historical Perspective from the Medical and Paramedical Point of ViewII. What Can Be Done about the Current Situations? 4. A Mild ProposalIII. The Individual Aspect of Parole5. Language Behavior and Body Movements6. The Physical Basis of Life7. Embryonic Development of the Nervous System8. Fetal Development of the Nervous System9. Phylogenic and Ontogenic Origin of the Complexity of Neuronal Circuitry10. Species-Specific Function of the Human Vocal Apparatus11. Structural Divisions of the Nervous SystemIV. The Individual Aspect of Langue12. Language in the Brain is Memory-Governed13. Language in the Brain is Meaning-Centered14. Language in the Brain is Multifaceted15. Language in the Brain is Stratified16. Evolution of Language: What Evolved? 17. Cerebral Dominance and Cerebral Laterality; Fact or Fiction? V. Production and Reception18. Construction of Meaning: Mapping of Content onto Expression19. Reconstruction of Meaning: Coupling of Expression and Content VI. Summary and Conclusion

Editorial Reviews

"Peng explores the question "What is language?" from the perspective of neurolinguistics, which is based on neuroanatomy and neurophysiology... For linguists, neuroscientists, and academics researching any aspect of language and the brain."--Sanford Lakoff

From the Publisher