Cambridge Approaches to Linguisti Forthcoming titles include Shula Chi i: Understan Language Problems ra Language and the Brain LORAINE K. OBLER erty of Ne KRIS GJERLOW lagistics, Elisabeth, New Jersey CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESScomposed of two gy: the supeamarginal ayrus, and, behind that, the angular gyrus. These are considered to be’a tertiary associ- Conclusion Nerve cells both in t the bra anding re involved in both producing the left hemisphere, ed that includes areas right next to the pri- mary motor areas of the brain and the s areas further back involved in taking in information pres- ented either visually or auditori 3 How we know what we know about brain organization for language A lave irate Left-hemisphere dominance for language he search for localized brain centers for speech and language to for an area of the brain dedicatéit to tariguage Tunction were the phrenolaias ofthe carly nineteenth century to whom a talents or personaly traits manifested themselves in increased development in particular cortical areas with subse- quent effects on the actual shape of the cranium or skull. Close examination of the skull, they believed, could lead to an under- standing of the inner person. ‘The phrenologists, such as Gall in England, Spurzheim in Germany and Bouillaud in France, believed the language faculty to be located in the two frontal lobes. In fact, Bouillaud went as far as to offer a prize to anyone who could find a pat nt with linguistic deficits and no frontal lobe damage! There as some disagreement among phrenologists as to whether there was a single language faculty or perhaps, as Gall suggested, one center for the memory of words and another for articulate speech (Brown & Chobor, 1992). Data from brain damage As early as 1836, John Abercrombie, a prominent Scottish physician, published data from which the association of left-brain. damage with linguistic deficits was clear. As Hans Forstl (1991) 7