The Human Brain

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The Human Brains Capacity for Language

• by Don L. F. Nilsen and
• Alleen Pace Nilsen

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ANIMAL HUMAN BRAINS (Heny 636)
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LEFT HEMISPHERE OF HUMAN BRAIN (Heny 639)
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LEFT HEMISPHERE(Fromkin Rodman Hyams 2007 39)
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CORPUS CALLOSUM ALLOWS

• Auditory Crossover
• Visual Crossover
• Arm- and Leg-Sensing Crossover
• Left-Hemisphere Brain Crossover resulting in
  left-hemisphere domination esp. for right-handed
  people (Heny 646-647)

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• With the corpus callosum intact the two halves
  of the body have no secrets from one another.
  With it sectioned (as in severe epilepsy) the
  two halves become two different conscious mental
  spheres each with its own experience base and
  control system for behavioral operations.
  Unbelievably as this may seem this is the flavor
  of a long series of experimental studies first
  carried out in the cat and monkey.
• (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 2007 46)

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THE CRITICAL AGE FOR LANGUAGE LEARNING

• For human babies the brain is very flexible and
  the left hemisphere is not dominant. By the
  Critical Age the left hemisphere is dominant and
  Brocas area and Wernickes area become less
  adaptable to new language stimuli.
• (Heny 649)
• The critical-age hypothesis assumes that
  language is biologically based and states that
  the ability to learn a native language develops
  within a fixed period from birth to middle
  childhood.
• (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 2007 53)

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ANIMAL HANDEDNESS

• Among all nonhuman higher primates handedness
  is evenly distributedapproximately fifty percent
  of chimpanzees are right-handed and fifty percent
  left-handed.
• (Kemp and Smith 676)

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HUMAN HANDEDNESS

• In contrast something like ninety percent of
  human beings are right handedthat is left
  hemisphere dominant.
• (Kemp and Smith 676).

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LATERALIZATION 1

• The left hemisphere is dominant in most humans
  however the following people are more balanced
• Bilinguals Especially Asians and users of
  Character-Writing-Systems
• Deaf users of American Sign Language
• Literate People
• Left-Handed People
• Women
• (Clark 628Heny 649-654)

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LATERALIZATION 2

• Left Hemisphere Dominant
• Art Critics
• Literary Critics
• Music Critics
• Right Hemisphere Balanced
• Artists
• Authors
• Musicians

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LEFT-BRAIN SPECIALTIES

• Analytical Processing
• Temporal Relations
• Speech Sounds
• Mathematics
• Intellectual Activities
• (Heny 643)

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RIGHT-BRAIN SPECIALTIES

• Synthetic and Creative Activities
• Holistic Processing Gestalts and Overall
  Patterns
• Spatial Relations
• Nonspeech Sounds
• Music Appreciation
• Emotion
• (Heny 643)

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BROCAS APHASIA

• Cookie jarfall overchairwateremptyovovExa
  miner overflow Yeah.
• (Heny 637)

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• People with Brocas aphasia sometimes substitute
  synonyms of the words they mean freedom for
  liberty parrot for canary overseas for abroad
  long for large small for short long for tall.
• Or they may substitute the word in its wrong
  grammatical category decision for decide
  concealment for conceal portrait for portray
  bath for bathe dliscussion for discuss and
  memory for remember.
• (Fromkin Rodman Hyams 2007 64)

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BROCAS APHASIA IS LIKE TELEGRAPHIC SPEECH

• Compare the Following
• Brocas Aphasia
• Childrens Language
• Tarzans Language
• The Lone Rangers friend Tontos Language
• Genies Language
• The Language of a Telegram

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WERNICKES APHASIA

• Well this ismother is away here workingout
  ohere to get her better but when shes working
  the two boys looking in the other part. One
  their small tile into her time here. Shes
  working another time because shes getting too.
• (Heny 638)

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• People with Wernickes aphasia might use
  sentences like these collected by Harry Whitaker
  
• There is under a horse a new sidesaddle.
• In girls we see many happy days.
• Ill challenge a new bike.
• I surprise no new glamour.
• Is there three chairs in this room
• Mike and Peter is happy.
• Bill and John likes hot dogs.
• Proliferate is a complete time about a word that
  is correct.
• Went came in better than it did before.

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WERNICKES APHASIA IS LIKE LEWIS CARROLLS
JABBERWOCKY

• Twas brillig and the slithy toves
• Did gire and gimble in the wabe
• All mimsy were the borogroves
• And the mome wraths outgrabe.

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SLIPS OF THE TONGUE EAR PEN AND HAND

• In 1973 Victoria Fromkin edited an important
  book entitled Speech Errors as Linguistic
  Evidence.
• In 1980 she edited another important book
  entitled Errors in Linguistic Performance Slips
  of the Tongue Ear Pen and Hand.
• In these books Fromkin shows how slips of the
  tongue ear pen and hand (in signing) give
  important insights into the way the human mind
  works.
• Consider the following examples

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CHILDRENS BLOOPERS

• Children are often faced with language that they
  are unfamiliar with.
• Thats why children may change chess into
  chest.
• Or they may change the church hymn Gladly the
  Cross Id Bear into Gladly the Cross-Eyed
  Bear.
• And Hilliard Jasons example of New York Children
  reciting the Lords Prayer Lead us not into
  Penn Station.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 7)

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CHILDRENS EXCUSES FOR BEING ABSENT

• Mary could not come to school because she has
  been bothered by very close veins.
• Please excuse Jimmy for being. It was his
  fathers fault.
• Teacher please excuse Mary for being absent.
  She was sick and I had her shot.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 8)

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• TOT Tip of the Tongue Phenomenon Sometimes
  when we are searching for a word in our brain we
  come up with a near miss. The wrong word sounds
  like scans like or has a similar meaning to the
  right word
• Queen Elizabeth was the Virgin Queen. When
  Elizabeth exposed herself before her troops they
  all shouted hurrah. Then her navy went out and
  defeated the Spanish Armadillo.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 7)
• (From Richard Lederers Anguished English)

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• It was an age of great inventions and
  discoveries. Gutenberg invented the Bible.
  Another important invention was the circulation
  of blood. Sir Walter Raleigh is a historical
  figure because he invented cigarettes and started
  smoking. And Sir Frances Drake circumsised the
  world with a 100-foot clipper.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 7-8)
• (From Richard Lederers Anguished English)

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YOGI BERRA

• Yogi Berra was the catcher for the New York
  Yankees baseball team. He said
• I want to win 100 or 105 games this
  yearwhichever comes first.
• Its déjà vu all over again.
• It aint over til its over.
• Yogi Berra was the inspiration for the cartoon
  character on television named Yogi Bear.
• For additional examples please contact Hilliard
  Jason at hjason_at_me.com
• (Nilsen Nilsen 9)

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ARCHIE BUNKER

• In All in the Family Archie Bunkers mistakes
  showed that he was a xenophobic bigot
• Milton Berlin Morgan David wine Blackberry
  Finn pushy imported ricans and a regular Marco
  Polish showed he was racist.
• Englebum Humperdunk and welfare incipients showed
  he was uneducated.
• The immaculate connection Dunn and Broadstreet
  and groinocologist showed he was sexist.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 8)

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SIGMUND FREUD

• Sigmund Freud said that slips of the tongue often
  are evidence of peoples subconscious desires as
  when the President of the Lower House of
  Parliament opened a meeting by saying
• Gentlemen I take notice that a full quorum of
  members is present and herewith declare the
  meeting closed.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 8)

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!SAMUEL GOLDWYN

• Samuel Goldwyn of Metro Goldwyn Meyer said
• A verbal contract isnt worth the paper its
  written on.
• Every Tom Dick and Harry is named William.
• For your information I would like to ask a
  question.
• Now gentlemen listen slowly.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 9)

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!!WILLIAM A. SPOONER

• British clergyman William A. Spooner was a
  professor at Oxford University who is reported to
  have said
• Three cheers for our queer old dean (referring
  to Queen Victoria)
• Is it kistomary to cuss the bride
• Stop hissing all my mystery lectures.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 9)

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!!!CASEY STENGEL

• Casey Stengel the manager of the New York
  Yankees baseball team said
• I guess Ill have to start from scraps.
• Everybody line up alphabetically according to
  your height.
• (Nilsen Nilsen 9)

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Web Sites of Eccentrics

• Eccentrics
• http//www.eccentricneworleans.com/gallery_of_ecce
  ntrics.htm
• Monk
• http//video.usanetwork.com/player/id24093

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Related PowerPoints

• Gender Humor
• Gerontology and Humor
• Humor Theories
• Humor Web Sites
• Laughter
• Music and Humor

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• References 1
• Bickerton Derek. The Continuity Paradox
  (Clark 681-702).
• Clark Virginia Paul Eschholz and Alfred Rosa.
  Language Readings in Language and Culture 6th
  Edition. New York NY St. Martins Press 1998.
• Crystal David. Language and Thought (Clark
  629-633).
• Fingeroth D. Superman on the Couch. New York
  NY Continuum 2004.

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• Fromkin Victoria A. ed. Errors in Linguistic
  Performance Slips of the Tongue Ear Pen and
  Hand. New York Academic Press 1980.
• Fromkin Victoria A. ed. Speech Errors as
  Linguistic Evidence. The Hague Mouton 1973.
• Fromkin Victoria Robert Rodman and Nina Hyams.
  Brain and Language. An Introduction to
  Language 8th Edition. Boston MA Thomson
  Wadsworth 2007 35-70 9th edition 2011 43-75.
• Gazzaniga M. The Bisected Brain. New York NY
  Appleton-Century-Crofts 1970.
• Heny Jeannine. Brain and Language (Clark
  634-657).

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• Jackson Hilliard. Humor and Health. personal
  e-mail May 8 2010.
• Nilsen Alleen Pace and Don L. F. Nilsen.
  Encyclopedia of 20th Century American Humor.
  Westport CT Greenwood 2000.
• Raskin Victor ed. The Primer of Humor Research.
  New York NY Mouton de Gruyter 2008.
• Raskin Victor. Theory of Humor and Practice of
  Humor Research Editors Notes. in Raskin 1-16.
• Ruch Willibald. Psychology of Humor in Raskin
  (2008) 17-100.