Brain image of an aphasic patient.

Back spot around the temporal lobe of the left side of the
brain.

First video: grammar is not there but semantics yes.

Conclusion about the relationship between brain and language: there must be some relation
between brain and language and understanding this relation is however extremely complex.
Our ability to speak is guided by something happening in our brain.

Reductionism: human behaviour is the consequence of the activity of our neurones.

Assumption of neuroscientists.

Neurones have two states: sending or not sending a message. The complex ways in which they
are connected make possible complex processes such as language. (From cels to circuits to
cognitive abilities).

When we look at the problem of language processing there are several levels of analysis: single
cells, brain circuits, more abstract representations.

Spoonerisms: switching the first phoneme of each word. We have representations of these
phonemes in our mind and when we switch any of these representations, the meaning
changes.

Definition of mental representation (we don’t have to learn it, just knowing how difficult it is to
define it).

Different types of linguistic representations and their violations:

- Phonological: /skrs/ in english.

- Morphological: childrens. Grammatical function.
- Syntactic: relations of words in each sentence. /The dog are/.
- Semantic: open the door/ open the window.
- Pragmatic: about the context. /polite vs non polite/.

Psycholinguistics: is the study of mental representations and processes involved in language

use (distinguish from theorical linguistics), including the production, comprehension and
storage of spoken and written language.