Language and Chunking

    The questions of how language functions in different species and whether we have brain regions that are activated for the use of language has long been debated in the research realm. Language is a powerful tool that different species use to communicate different structural ideas and signals to each other. Being the most advanced species, human beings have the most complex language system. The development of language could be due to genetics, conscious memory chunking, or both; it is still not fully understood.
    

 A group of University of Kansas scientists studied the connections different words have with each other. through their study, they found that words that there are key words that are networked within a big group of other words. This was evident by the speed and accuracy of recognizing certain words after hearing a word before it that falls within the same network. this finding gives us a clearer understanding of how language works, making the manipulation of language learning and development easier.
   

  In the Revenous Brain, Bor ties in the capability of learning language with our regulated memory chunking system. Rather than believing in a unique and innate language functioning region in our brain,  his view instead is that "language emerges out of our general capacity to make conscious chunks"(Bor, 145).  Just like other tasks that involve structuring things consciously in chunks, he thinks that language develops by exercising simple sound chunks until these signals of communication develop into something far more advanced consisting of thousands of words with grammatical rules.

   
 The word network finding has several applications in the real word. If we are aware of the networks of words that are more closely related in our mind, we can control them for language learning and developmental purposes. Learning a new language would be much more convenient if we had a list of words that are easier to recognize when grouped together. It can be used help people who suffered a stroke relearn words that will trigger the remembrance of linked words.


References:

University of Kansas, Life Span Institute. (2014, May 19). Keywords hold our vocabulary together in memory. ScienceDaily. Retrieved October 17, 2014 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/05/140519104739.htm




Bor, Daniel. The Ravenous Brain: How the New Science of Consciousness Explains Our Insatiable Search for Meaning. New York: Basic, 2012. Print.