Neuroscience and Multilingualism

270 Pages·2014·3.992 MB·English

by  Edna Andrews

Neuroscience and Multilingualism
Howarelanguagesrepresentedinthehumanbrain?Ideasfromneuroscience
haveincreasinglybeenappliedtothestudyoflanguage,exploringtheneural
processes involved in acquisition, maintenance, and loss of language and
languages, and the interaction between languages in bi- and multilingual
speakers.Withasharpfocusonmultilingualism,thisculminationofcutting-
edgeresearchshedslightonthischallengingquestion.
Using data from a variety of experiments, this is the first book-length
study to offer a new neuroscientific model for analyzing multilingualism.
Alongside a comprehensive analysis of the theoretical and experimental
contributionstothefield,itpresentsnewdataandanalysisobtainedfroma
multilingualismfMRIstudy.Italsoincludesauniquelongitudinalstudyof
secondandthirdlanguageacquisitioncombinedwithextensiveempirically
validlanguageproficiencydataofthesubjects.
Amustreadforresearchersandadvancedstudentsinterestedinneurolin-
guistics,secondlanguageacquisition,andbi-andmultilingualism.
edna andrews is Professor of Linguistics and Cultural Anthropology
andNancyandJeffreyMarcus ProfessorofSlavic andEurasianStudiesat
DukeUniversity.

Neuroscience and
Multilingualism
Edna Andrews
UniversityPrintingHouse,CambridgeCB28BS,UnitedKingdom
CambridgeUniversityPressispartoftheUniversityofCambridge.
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Informationonthistitle:www.cambridge.org/9781107036550
©EdnaAndrews2014
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Firstpublished2014
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AcataloguerecordforthispublicationisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary
LibraryofCongressCataloginginPublicationdata
Andrews,Edna,1958–author.
Neuroscienceandmultilingualism/EdnaAndrews.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex.
ISBN978-1-107-03655-0(Hardback)
I.Title.
[DNLM:1. LanguageDevelopment. 2. Multilingualism. 3. Brain–physiology.
4. BrainMapping. 5. Neurosciences–methods. WS105.5.C8]
QP411
612.802–dc23 2014007593
ISBN978-1-107-03655-0Hardback
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To my mom, Goldie, who is the kindest and most
generous person I have ever known.

Contents
List offigures page ix
List oftables xi
Acknowledgments xii
1 Assembling the pieces: the neuroscience disciplines essential for
the studyof language andbrain 1
1.1 Fundamentalsofthefunctioningbrain 2
1.2 Remappinglanguageinthehumanbrain:whattodowiththetraditionalmodel? 3
1.3 Thebilingualbrain:theneurologicalunderpinningsofbilingualism 8
1.4 Namingnames:lookingforlanguageareasinthehumanbrain 14
1.5 Modelingmemory:therelevanceofmodelsofmemorytounderstanding
humanlanguage 16
1.6 Imagingtechnologiesandtheirroleinstudyinglanguageandbrain 17
1.7 Majortrendsinthestudyoflanguageandbrain 20
1.8 Thedifferencebetweencognitivescience(s)andneuroscience 23
1.9 Theboundariesofcognitivelinguisticsandneurolinguistics 24
1.10 Redefininghumanlanguage 26
1.11 Mythsabouthumanlanguage 28
2 Building the basis: linguistic contributions toa theory of
language and their relevanceto the study oflanguage and brain 32
2.1 Thefoundationofatheoryoflanguageandbrain:understandingspeechacts 32
2.2 Thespecificpropertiesofhumanspeech:phonemeproductionandperception 35
2.3 Misunderstandingsabouthumanlanguage 41
2.4 Languageandculture:thereisnolanguageintheone 44
2.5 Theevolutionofhumancognition:howlanguagefitsin 47
2.6 Significationandcommunicationinaction:buildingblocksforatheoryof
languageandbrainviamodelingspeechacts(Jakobson,Searle,andTomasello) 51
2.7 Theorganizingprinciplesoflanguage 54
2.8 Translation,translatability,andthespeechactmodel 56
2.9 Tension,translation,andthecommunicationact 58
2.10 Peirceancontributionstoatheoryoflanguage 59
2.11 Cross-culturalpragmatics:roundingoutatheoryoflinguisticmeaning 65
3 Neuroscience applicationstothe study ofmultilingualism 68
3.1 Revelationsoflanguagefunctionfromcorticalstimulationmappings 68
3.2 Whatpathologiesrevealaboutnormalfunction 73
vii
viii Contents
3.3 Aphasia:thestarofthelesion-deficittradition 73
3.4 Howtounderstandtherangeofaphasicdisorders 83
3.5 Medialtemporallobedamageandlanguagedisintegration:thecaseofHenry
GustavMolaison,betterknownasH.M. 88
3.6 Explicitandimplicitmemorysystems 97
3.7 Languageandaging 99
3.8 Multilingualismandcognitivedecline:integrationoflesion-deficit
dataanddatafromhealthysubjects 101
4 Exploring the boundaries ofcognitive linguistics and
neurolinguistics: reimaginingcross-cultural contributions 103
4.1 Categoriesofemotion 103
4.2 Whatismetaphor? 109
4.3 Defininglexicalmeaning:thewordinVygotsky 113
4.4 Language,culturalboundedness,anduniversals 120
4.5 Language,perception,andimagery 122
4.6 Lotman,Vygotsky,andcognitivemodelsofmemory 125
4.7 Sensory-motorinteractivemodelingoflanguageandbrain 128
5 Imaging technologies inthe studyof multilingualism:
focus onBOLD fMRI 141
5.1 Resultsfromimagingstudiesaboutlanguage 142
5.2 EarlyconcernsaboutPETstudiesoflanguage:Poeppel 145
5.3 ProblemsofanalysisforfMRIlanguagestudies 147
5.4 Answeringthecritiques 154
5.5 Towardabetterunderstandingofsecondlanguageacquisition 157
5.6 Longitudinalanalysisofbilingualismandmultilingualism:acasestudy 164
5.7 MANCOVAanalysis 177
5.8 Towardanexplanationofbilateralityoflanguage 188
5.9 Conclusionsandfuturedirections 190
6 Reassemblingthe pieces: languages andbrains 196
6.1 Theimportanceofcultureintheevolutionofhumancognitionandlanguage 200
6.2 Memoryandlanguage:togetheratlast 201
6.3 Readingasagamechanger 202
6.4 Multilingualismthroughoutthelifecycle:changeasessential,notessentialist 203
6.5 Reunitinglesion-deficitstudieswithresearchinvolvinghealthysubjects 204
6.6 Whyimagingresearchisneededforcognitiveneurolinguistics 205
6.7 Wheredowegofromhere? 207
References 209
Index 247