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Linguistic Processes (linguistic + process)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Humanities and Social Sciences	75%

Selected Abstracts

The Picture of the Linguistic Brain: How Sharp Can It Be?

LINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 8 2010
Reply to Fedorenko & Kanwisher
What is the best way to learn how the brain analyzes linguistic input? Two popular methods have attempted to segregate and localize linguistic processes: analyses of language deficits subsequent to (mostly focal) brain disease and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) in health. A recent Compass article by Fedorenko and Kanwisher (FK, 2009) observes that these methods group together data from many individuals through methods that rely on variable anatomical landmarks and that results in a murky picture of how language is represented in the brain. To get around the variability problem, FK propose to import into neurolinguistics a method that has been successfully used in vision research , one that locates functional Regions Of Interest (fROIs) in each individual brain. In this note, I propose an alternative perspective. I first take issue with FK's reading of the literature. I point out that, when the neurolinguistic landscape is examined with the right linguistic spectacles, the emerging picture , while intriguingly complex , is not murky, but rather, stable and clear, parsing the linguistic brain into functionally and anatomically coherent pieces. I then examine the potential value of the method that FK propose, in light of important micro-anatomical differences between language and high-level vision areas and conclude that as things stand the method they propose is not very likely to bear much fruit in neurolinguistic research. [source]

Discourse Impairments Following Right Hemisphere Brain Damage: A Critical Review

LINGUISTICS & LANGUAGE COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 6 2008
Clinton L. Johns
Right hemisphere brain damage (RHD) rarely causes aphasias marked by clear and widespread failures of comprehension or extreme difficulty producing fluent speech. Nonetheless, subtle language comprehension deficits can occur following unilateral RHD. In this article, we review the empirical record on discourse function following right hemisphere damage, as well as relevant work on non-brain damaged individuals that focuses on right hemisphere function. The review is divided into four sections that focus on discourse processing, inferencing, humor, and non-literal language. While the exact role that the right hemisphere plays in language processing, and the exact way that the two cerebral hemispheres coordinate their linguistic processes are still open to debate, our review suggests that the right hemisphere plays a critical role in managing inferred or implied information by maintaining relevant information and/or suppressing irrelevant information. Deficits in one or both of these mechanisms may account for discourse deficits following RHD. [source]

Redefining functional models of basal ganglia organization: Role for the posteroventral pallidum in linguistic processing?

MOVEMENT DISORDERS, Issue 11 2004
Brooke-Mai Whelan PhD
Abstract Traditionally the basal ganglia have been implicated in motor behavior, as they are involved in both the execution of automatic actions and the modification of ongoing actions in novel contexts. Corresponding to cognition, the role of the basal ganglia has not been defined as explicitly. Relative to linguistic processes, contemporary theories of subcortical participation in language have endorsed a role for the globus pallidus internus (GPi) in the control of lexical,semantic operations. However, attempts to empirically validate these postulates have been largely limited to neuropsychological investigations of verbal fluency abilities subsequent to pallidotomy. We evaluated the impact of bilateral posteroventral pallidotomy (BPVP) on language function across a range of general and high-level linguistic abilities, and validated/extended working theories of pallidal participation in language. Comprehensive linguistic profiles were compiled up to 1 month before and 3 months after BPVP in 6 subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD). Commensurate linguistic profiles were also gathered over a 3-month period for a nonsurgical control cohort of 16 subjects with PD and a group of 16 non-neurologically impaired controls (NC). Nonparametric between-groups comparisons were conducted and reliable change indices calculated, relative to baseline/3-month follow-up difference scores. Group-wise statistical comparisons between the three groups failed to reveal significant postoperative changes in language performance. Case-by-case data analysis relative to clinically consequential change indices revealed reliable alterations in performance across several language variables as a consequence of BPVP. These findings lend support to models of subcortical participation in language, which promote a role for the GPi in lexical,semantic manipulation mechanisms. Concomitant improvements and decrements in postoperative performance were interpreted within the context of additive and subtractive postlesional effects. Relative to parkinsonian cohorts, clinically reliable versus statistically significant changes on a case by case basis may provide the most accurate method of characterizing the way in which pathophysiologically divergent basal ganglia linguistic circuits respond to BPVP. © 2004 Movement Disorder Society [source]

Violating the Mütter: Staging the Semiotics of Desire, or, Aspects of the Eternal-Feminine in "Faust"

ORBIS LITERARUM, Issue 2 2000
M. Nadeem Niazi
The following study seeks to isolate and define the violence of Faust's encounter with the Mütter through a nuanced investigation of the signifying practices governing Faust's first encounters with the other maternal figures prominent in the play, Helen and Gretchen. By problematizing the dichotomy between acting subject and impersonal linguistic processes during the sequence of Faust's ,infatuations' with the maternal-feminine, it is possible to discern the cause of violence against the Mütter and, subsequently, locate its textual manifestation in a mythological pre-figure in the ,Walpurgisnacht'. What takes place between Faust and the Mütter may well exceed the phenomenal modes of dramatic representation involving intersubjective interaction on-stage, but is accessible to discursive elaboration sensitive to the limits and modes of representation. Interrogating the complexities of Faust's encounters alerts us to the semantic depth of the enigmatic designation the ,Eternal-Feminine'. [source]