پیشنهادی ▓▓Proprietary english▓▓

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

Does a universal grammar exist?
When we learn a language, we also learn its grammar. When children learn their native language, this happens automatically. They don't notice that their brain is learning various rules. Despite this, they learn their native language correctly from the beginning. Given that many languages exist, many grammar systems exist too. But is there also a universal grammar? Scientists have been studying this for a long time. New studies could provide an answer. Because brain researchers have made an interesting discovery. They had test subjects study grammar rules. These subjects were language school students. They studied Japanese or Italian. Half of the grammar rules were totally fabricated. However, the test subjects didn't know that. The students were presented with sentences after studying. They had to assess whether or not the sentences were correct. While they were working through the sentences, their brains were analyzed. That is to say, the researchers measured the activity of the brain. This way they could examine how the brain reacted to the sentences. And it appears that our brain recognizes grammar! When processing speech, certain brain areas are active. The Broca Center is one of them. It is located in the left cerebrum. When the students were faced with real grammar rules, it was very active. With the fabricated rules on the other hand, the activity decreased considerably. So it could be that all grammar systems have the same basis. Then they would all follow the same principles. And these principles would be inherent in us…

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

The native language is always the most important language
Our native language is the first language we learn. This happens automatically, so we don't notice it. Most people only have one native language. All other languages are studied as foreign languages. Of course there are also people who grow up with multiple languages. However, they typically speak these languages with differing levels of fluency. Often, the languages are also used differently. One language is used at work, for example. The other is used at home. How well we speak a language is dependent on multiple factors. When we learn it as small children, we typically learn it very well. Our speech centre works most effectively in these years of life. How often we speak a language is also important. The more often we use it, the better we speak it. But researchers believe a person can never speak two languages equally well. One language is always the more important language. Experiments seem to confirm this hypothesis. Various people were tested in one study. Half of the test subjects spoke two languages fluently. Chinese was the native language and English the second. The other half of the subjects only spoke English as their native language. The test subjects had to solve simple tasks in English. While doing so, the activity of their brains was measured. And differences appeared in the brains of the test subjects! In the multilingual individuals, one region of the brain was especially active. The monolingual individuals, on the other hand, showed no activity in this region. Both groups solved the tasks equally fast and well. Despite this, the Chinese still translated everything into their native language…

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

He who wants to speak must write!
Learning foreign languages is not always easy. Language students often find speaking particularly difficult in the beginning. Many do not have the courage to say sentences in the new language. They are too afraid of making mistakes. For students like this, writing can be a solution. For he who wants to learn to speak well should write as much as possible! Writing helps us to adapt to a new language. There are many reasons for this. Writing is different to speaking. It is a much more complex process. When writing, we take more time to consider which words to use. In doing so, our brain works with the new language more intensively. We are also much more relaxed when writing. There is no one there waiting for an answer. So we slowly lose the fear of the language. Furthermore, writing promotes creativity. We feel freer and play with the new language more. Writing also allows us more time than speaking. And it supports our memory! But the biggest advantage of writing is the impersonal form. Meaning, we can closely examine the outcome of our wording. We see everything clearly in front of us. This way we can fix our mistakes ourselves and learn in the process. What you write in the new language is theoretically not important. What's important is formulating written sentences on a regular basis. If you want to practice you could look for a pen pal overseas. Then you should meet in person sometime. You will see: Speaking is now much easier!

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

Bodies react to speech
Speech is processed in our brain. Our brain is active when we listen or read. This can be measured using various methods. But not only our brain reacts to linguistic stimuli. Recent studies show that speech also activates our body. Our body works when it hears or reads certain words. Above all, words that describe physical reactions. The word smile is a good example of this. When we read this word, we move our "smile muscle". Negative words also have a measurable effect. An example of this is the word pain. Our body exhibits a clear pain reaction when we read this word. It could be said then that we imitate that which we read or hear. The more vivid the speech is, the more we react to it. A precise description has a strong reaction as a result. The activity of the body was measured for a study. Test subjects were shown various words. There were positive and negative words. The facial expressions of the test subjects changed during the tests. The movements of the mouth and forehead varied. That proves that speech has a strong effect on us. Words are more than just a means of communication. Our brain translates speech into body language. How exactly that works hasn't been researched yet. It is possible that the results of the study will have consequences. Physicians are discussing how best to treat patients. Because many ill people must undergo a long round of therapy. And there is a lot of talking in the process…

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

The blind process speech more efficiently
People that cannot see hear better. As a result, they can move through everyday life easier. But blind people can also process speech better! Numerous scientific studies have come to this conclusion. Researchers had test subjects listen to recordings. The speed of speech was then considerably increased. Despite this, the blind test subjects could understand the recordings. The test subjects who could see, on the other hand, could hardly understand. The rate of speaking was too high for them. Another experiment came to similar results. Seeing and blind test subjects listened to various sentences. Part of each sentence was manipulated. The last word was replaced with a nonsense word. The test subjects had to assess the sentences. They had to decide if the sentences were sensible or nonsense. While they were working through the sentences, their brains were analyzed. Researchers measured certain brain waves. By doing so, they could see how quickly the brain solved the task. In the blind test subjects, a certain signal appeared very quickly. This signal indicates that a sentence has been analyzed. In the seeing test subjects, this signal appeared much later. Why blind people process speech more efficiently is not yet known. But scientists have a theory. They believe that their brain uses a particular brain region intensively. It is the region with which seeing people process visual stimuli. This region isn't used for seeing in blind people. So it is "available" for other tasks. For this reason, the blind have a greater capacity to process speech…

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

What words tell us
Worldwide there are many millions of books. How many have been written up to now is unknown. A great deal of knowledge is stored in these books. If one were to read all of them, he would know a lot about life. Because books show us how our world changes. Each era has its own books. By reading them one can identify what is important to people. Unfortunately, no one can read every book. But modern technology can help analyze books. Using digitalization, books can be stored like data. After that, the contents can be analyzed. In this way, linguists see how our language has changed. It is even more interesting, however, to count the frequency of words. By doing so, the significance of certain things can be identified. Scientists studied more than 5 million books. These were books from the last five centuries. A total of 500 billion words were analyzed. The frequency of the words shows how people lived then and now. Ideas and trends are reflected in the language. The word men has lost some meaning, for example. It is used less frequently today than it was earlier. The frequency of the word women, on the other hand, has increased significantly. One can also see what we like to eat by looking at words. The word ice cream was very important in the fifties. After that, the words pizza and pasta became popular. The term sushi has been dominant for a few years now. There is good news for all language lovers… Our language gains more words every year!

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

Creative Language
Today, creativity is an important feature. Everyone wants to be creative. Because creative people are considered intelligent. Our language should be creative as well. Previously, people tried to speak as correctly as possible. Today a person should speak as creatively as possible. Advertising and new media are examples of this. They demonstrate how one can play with language. For the last 50 years the significance of creativity has increased greatly. Even research is concerned with the phenomenon. Psychologists, educators and philosophers examine creative processes. Creativity is defined as the ability to create something new. So a creative speaker produces new linguistic forms. They could be words or grammatical structures. By studying creative language, linguists can identify how language changes. But not everyone understands new linguistic elements. In order to understand creative language, you need knowledge. One must know how language functions. And one must be familiar with the world in which the speakers live. Only then can one understand what they want to say. Teenage slang is an example of this. Kids and young people are always inventing new terms. Adults often do not understand these words. Now, dictionaries have been published that explain teenage slang. But they are usually already outdated after just one generation! However, creative language can be learned. Trainers offer several courses in it. The most important rule is always: activate your inner voice!

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

Genetic mutation makes speaking possible
Man is the only living creature on Earth that can speak. This distinguishes him from animals and plants. Of course animals and plants also communicate with each other. However, they do not speak a complex syllable language. But why can man speak? Certain physical features are needed in order to be able to speak. These physical features are only found in humans. However, that does not necessarily mean that man developed them. In evolutionary history, nothing happens without a reason. Somewhere along the line, man began to speak. We do not yet know when exactly that was. But something must have happened that gave man speech. Researchers believe that a genetic mutation was responsible. Anthropologists have compared the genetic material of various living beings. It is well known that a particular gene influences speech. People in which it is damaged have problems with speech. They can't express themselves well and have a hard time understanding words. This gene was examined in people, apes, and mice. It is very similar in humans and chimpanzees. Only two small differences can be identified. But these differences make their presence known in the brain. Together with other genes, they influence certain brain activities. Thus humans can speak, whereas apes cannot. However, the riddle of the human language is not yet solved. For the gene mutation alone is not enough to enable speech. Researchers implanted the human gene variant in mice. It didn't give them the ability to speak… But their squeaks made quite a racket!

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

Code-switching
More and more people are growing up bilingual. They can speak more than one language. Many of these people often switch languages. They decide which language to use depending on the situation. For example, they speak a different language at work than at home. By doing so, they adapt themselves to their environment. But there is also the possibility of switching languages spontaneously. This phenomenon is called code-switching. In code-switching, the language gets switched in the middle of speaking. There could be many reasons why speakers switch languages. Often, they don't find the appropriate word in one language. They can express themselves better in the other language. It can also be that the speaker feels more confident in one of the languages. They use this language for private or personal things. Sometimes a certain word doesn't exist in a language. In this case the speaker must switch languages. Or they switch languages so that they aren't understood. In that case code-switching works like a secret language. Earlier, mixing languages was criticized. It was thought that the speaker couldn't speak either language correctly. Today it is viewed differently. Code-switching is recognized as a special linguistic competence. It can be interesting to observe speakers using code-switching. Often, they don't just switch the language they're speaking. Other communicative elements change as well. Many speak faster, louder or more accentuated in the other language. Or they suddenly use more gestures and facial expressions. In this way, code-switching is always a little bit of culture-switching too…

 

[☾♔TALAYEH_A♔☽]

Machine Translations
A person who wants to have texts translated has to pay a lot of money. Professional interpreters or translators are expensive. Despite this, it is becoming increasingly important to understand other languages. Computer scientists and computer linguists want to solve this problem. They have been working for some time now on the development of translation tools. Today, there are many different programs. But the quality of machine translations is typically not good. However, the programmers aren't at fault for that! Languages are very complex structures. Computers, on the other hand, are based on simple mathematical principles. Therefore, they can't always process languages correctly. A translation program must learn a language completely. In order for that to happen, experts have to teach it thousands of words and rules. That is practically impossible. It's easier to have a computer crunch numbers. It's good at that! A computer can calculate which combinations are common. It recognizes, for example, which words are often next to each other. For that, it has to be given texts in various languages. This way it learns what is typical for certain languages. This statistical method will improve automatic translations. However, computers cannot replace humans. No machine can imitate a human brain when it comes to language. So translators and interpreters will have work for a long time to come! In the future, simple texts could certainly be translated by computers. Songs, poetry and literature, on the other hand, need a living element. They thrive on the human feeling for language. And it's good that way…