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Ears or The iggle squiggs So, in the beginning was the Word ... The debate about whether a noun or a verb appeared earlier is still ongoing. One thing is certain that the concept of “I” appeared first. As for nouns and verbs, they still coexist as a single concept, as two in one, so the eyes are inseparable from their functions to observe and to see, and the ears are connected with hearing and listening. These concepts (functional nouns) are stored in the Wernicke region. The concepts are related to the words denoting them in the Brocka area. Here there is a division of one concept into two grammatical categories (noun and verb). The language is stored in the Broka area, as we use it in communication. A huge area is reserved for sound matrices of phrases. Understanding takes place in a familiar scenario: the phrase you hear finds its own matrix that is associated with its meaning (stored in the Wernicke area). We do not need to waste time thinking over what has been said. Since different people have different numbers of stored matrices, they understand the language at different levels. Agree, we never have a question about how well we understand our mother language or how well people around us understand us. We do not doubt for a second that people born, for example, in Russia understand the Russian language. But here is one curious observation that Lyudmila S. shared with me. "Once during a sermon, a priest (a well-educated person) said the phrase: “And then a certain cognitive dissonance arises ...”. I involuntarily looked around the parishioners (mainly elderly women) and did not notice a shadow of misunderstanding or perplexity on any face. It seems everyone understood everything." I would call this paradox a pseudo-understanding of the language. A sense of understanding arises from a familiar grammatical construction, approximate analogues of which are stored in our memory. Professor Henry Allan Gleason Jr. once gave an example of such an understandable and at the same time meaningless linguistic construction: "The iggle squiggs trazed wombly in the harlish hoop." Language proficiency starts from the moment when the brain begins to perceive unfamiliar words at the iggle squiggs level and does not experience “cognitive dissonance”, as the priest mentioned above would say. For grammatical constructions to become a familiar pattern, we need to accumulate in memory as many of their analogues as possible. After that, the brain itself will make “understandable” even that what we cannot understand in general. Usually we prepare in advance for various language combinations without thinking about it on a conscious level. We can say that based on the situation, we are preparing for ourselves possible options for questions, answers and just phrases. But if suddenly you were asked about something you did not expect, it may turn out that you do not understand anything, as if you were asked in another language. Excuse me, what did you say? I did not hear. In fact, you heard the phrase, but if you do not use this phrase often, then your brain needs more time to realize it and respond. In certain situations, we expect to hear certain words or phrases and, interestingly, often hear what we expect to hear, even if something else is said. The sister comes home from work and asks the question: - Everybody constantly says the same phrase to me AVEGEDE. What should I answer? - You too. - What does it mean? - Тебе тоже. (Russian you too). - And what is AVEGEDE? - Have a good day. The next day, the sister says: - Today, when I left work, I told an employee "AVEGEDE!". - And what did she answer? - You too. *A(B)VGD - the beginning of the Russian alphabet The Broca's area is a transit station in the communication process and does not bear any logical responsibility for what was said. Broca’s area is not very smart and uses only what the Wernicke's region, which is responsible for linking expressions with their meaning, prepared for it. It can speak, but cannot think. Sometimes we give an answer that no longer matches what we think. We may have changed our mind, we already have a different point of view, but we have not formulated a new thought in words yet. That is why we use the old mold, which is still on the memory shelf. Sorry, I said without thinking. And this is a good reason do not take seriously what was said before. In addition to phrases, all possible elements are stored in the Broca area, such as all forms of verbs and nouns, adjectives, conjunctions, interjections, and so on. Somehow, our brain turns this language dump into a clear system, sorting out similar elements and designs. Broca's area is connected to the area of ​​the brain that is responsible for motor skills and articulation. We taught articulator muscles to pronounce phrase as a whole, without analyzing it and without thinking about what grammatical rules it is based on. In conversation we use the same matrices as in listening, therefore, the more matrix phrases for understanding speech we have, the more analog speech patterns we have. Thus, in order to learn to understand any language and speak on it, it is enough to have only ears. It is good if you have a good ear for music to memorize the music of the phrase, but it does not matter if you are tone deaf. You just need a little more time, but the result is still guaranteed, after all, did you manage to learn your native language? You might ask, is there a need to learn grammar if it is possible to learn any language just by listening to it? Absolutely not! The next question is if it is possible to become a literate person without knowledge of the rules? No doubt! But for this purpose you need your eyes. next content