This column considers how sharp we are when it comes to language. We have a lot of basic knowledge stored away in our long-term memory that enables us to express ourselves and to understand what others express. In this column, we will consider some kinds of our language ability. We will examine the contents of our mental dictionary, our mental spell check, and our language-use device.
Mental Dictionary
Some linguists and psychologists have called our memory for the words in our vocabulary our mental dictionary. Our use of this mental dictionary is highly skilled. We recognize a word and what it means in less than a half of a second. When a word is used in a sentence we recognize that word faster yet. Additionally, we can think of the ideas associated with a word in less than a second.
All of us can recall or recognize many words. Our mental dictionary has been estimated to contain around 50,000 words. This does not mean that we routinely use these 50,000 words. In fact, research indicates that we use about the same 1,000 words for most of what we say day by day. People who curse a lot apparently rely on far fewer words. Nevertheless, we recall or recognize the meanings of the 50,000 words on one occasion or another.
Besides indicating to us the meaning of words, our mental dictionary gives us a sense of the familiarity of a word. We know that “the” is a very familiar word and that “cholesterol” is far less familiar. The power of our mental dictionary to indicate familiarity is special in that the printed dictionary often does not indicate the familiarity of words.
We are able to understand several aspects of the words in our mental dictionary. For example, we are almost immediately aware of the familiarity of words as we speak. We know to not use unfamiliar words with children or with people who might not know the words we could use. Generally, we choose to use familiar words so that others can decipher what we say, that is, make sense out of what we say. Also, the familiarity of words affects how rapidly they are understood.
Generally, familiar words are comprehended faster than unfamiliar words.
The familiarity of words and word combinations is also important legally. Businesses, who want to call a product by certain words, cannot use highly familiar words or word combinations for a product’s name. Trademarks must be made with unfamiliar words because highly familiar words belong to everyone and not to a business that wants to use them. For example, apple pie cannot be trademarked. This combination belongs to everyone because everyone eats apple pie or at least speaks of it sometime. Less familiar combinations, such as “American pie,” can be trademarked, although this combination has become much more familiar in the last decade or two.
Another characteristic of words available in our dictionary is the abstractness or concreteness of words. Truth is abstract whereas pizza is concrete. Concrete words can suggest an image (I can see that pizza in my mind’s eye right now). Alternatively, abstract words do not suggest an image or do not do so easily. Sometimes our awareness of the abstractness or concreteness of words is helpful to us as we speak. If we want others to understand readily, we may choose to say the Colts “won” instead of “vanquished” because “won” is more familiar to us than “vanquished.”
Mental Spell Check
Our mental dictionary comes with a mechanism that enables us to spell many of the words we use. This mechanism that is similar to the spell check that comes with word processing programs in computers these days. We can take satisfaction in knowing that humans had the spell-check mechanism long before computers did.
The ability to check our spelling comes in part from the rules we learned in school about how to spell words. You know “i before e except after c” or is it “e before i except after d?” In addition to spelling rules, our brain keeps track of how often letters are used. We know that q and z are used far less than m and n, which are used less often than a and o. Apparently our brain makes a record whenever a letter is used. In addition, our brain keeps track of letter combinations that occur in words. On reflection, we know that “nt” occurs fairly often and that “tn” almost never happens.
Language-use Device
A large part of our ability to read and understand occurs because our language-use device makes sense out of words according to their order in sentences. For example, the order of words in the comment “the Colts beat the Bears” is clearer than “the the Colts beat bears” (the latter sentence was heard at a Super Bowl victory celebration and no one had trouble understanding this person). The order of words is crucial to our understanding of them. It is impressive that our brain is able to deal with word order so quickly.
Our language-use device computes ambiguous meanings without difficulty. ”The Congress is revolting” might have been said this week regarding the vote that objected to the president’s plans for a troop surge in Iraq. The Congress was indeed revolting against the president. However, those who disapproved of this vote, might have said, “the Congress is revolting” where revolting is intended to mean disgusting. Fortunately, our brain is able to derive the deeper meanings of what people say from the context in which statements are said.
A Sharper Mind
February 21, 2007
A Sharper Mind: Mental dictionary, spell check provide sharp language tools
- A Sharper Mind
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- A Shaper Mind: A review of Sharper Mind columns Don’t worry. Just because I am providing a review in this column, it doesn’t mean I am going to give an exam afterward. I just want to go over some of the most important ideas discussed in this column previously. The reason that I am doing this is because this is my last column. I admit that I just could not remember any topic that had not been examined here.
- Holiday gift giving for the sharper mind This year, more than most years, gift giving during the holidays is going to be especially challenging. Gift-giving this year will require more accurate remembering and more problems solving than in previous years.
- The pros and cons of cell phones This column will, first, review why cell phones have a positive effect on our mind. Subsequently, we will consider the dangerous consequences of talking on a cell phone while driving and then the very dangerous consequences of text-messaging on a cell phone while driving,
- Activities of daily living that depend on memory Everyone forgets something that they are supposed to do in everyday life. They may have known what they should do for a long time or for after a minute or so. This column examines the role of memory in some common activities in one’s day.
- Why names and appointments are difficult to remember Everyone has weaknesses. Mine is popcorn and more popcorn. We also have weaknesses when it comes to memory. I don’t know your memory weaknesses and I don’t care to share mine. But I can tell you the memory weaknesses that most of us say we have.
- Consider thinking training It is possible to buy products that are supposed to improve one’s mind? Last month’s column discussed products that aim at improving a person’s memory. As promised, this month’s column reviews products (such as courses, books, tapes, CDs, and CD ROMS) that are aimed at improving a person’s ability to think.
- A Sharper Mind: The science behind commercial methods of mind improvement It is possible to buy products that are supposed to improve one’s mind. Most of these products aim at improving a person’s memory but many products aim at improving a person’s ability to think. This month’s column reviews products that are supposed to improve a person’s memory. Next month’s column will review products intended to improve a person’s thinking ability.
- Candidates, superdelegates not lying, just forgetful Recently, some presidential candidates have apparently forgotten something that others expected them to remember. Also some superdelegates have switched allegiance from one candidate to the other, revealing that they forgot the candidate they originally favored.
- The advantages and disadvantages of memorists Every family has one. Every group of friends has one, too: a person who tends to remember almost everything that is going on. This person knows all about upcoming events (concerts, lectures), what is at the movies, and what’s on TV. Sometimes, this person even knows what is going on among family members, friends and acquaintances. Accurate gossip is a valuable commodity.
- Drake sweeps ISU softball Friday, but Saturday's game called off Indiana State’s softball team played 19 games before ever stepping foot on the Price Field diamond Friday for a doubleheader against Drake. The homecoming wasn’t a happy one — Drake swept ISU with 5-1 and 6-2 victories — but the long-term concern is on the mound, where star pitcher Darcy Wood is battling a shoulder injury.
- Completing a medical history form at a doctor’s office These days, when you visit a doctor’s office for the first time, you are given a form on which you are supposed to record important facts about your medical history. Unfortunately, these forms ask for considerable information, much of which few human beings can recall. More unfortunate yet is that different doctors use different forms. Consequently, we are required to fill out medical history forms calling for essentially the same information all over again for each new doctor.
- Owls may get the credit for being wise, but you should want an elephant’s mind Just to be clear at the outset, this column does not endorse or reject the symbol of a political party. Also, the column has nothing to do with a rock group called Elephant Memory that Yoko Ono and John Lennon promoted in the early 1970s. Instead, the topic of this column is the memory of real live elephants.
- Sometimes we fail to remember something and feel guilty Some people regard memory as an open or shut case. We either remember or don’t remember.
- A Sharper Mind: Benefiting from each others memory failures We all are forgetful occasionally and leave something of ours behind in public places such as stores, shopping centers, and at the homes of family, friends and acquaintances. For example, we may forget to take with us things like a pair of gloves, an umbrella, a scarf or a jacket. Because we are all in this world together, we should forgive each other's memory failures.
- Don’t let others profit from your memory failures We all are forgetful on occasion. Some of us are more forgetful than others. If our forgetting inconveniences someone else, we hope that they will not be angry and will forgive our lapse. However, in addition to the possible anger or forgiving, there is another way someone might respond to our memory failure.
- A Sharper Mind: Learning how to get a bright idea In the past, this column has discussed the factors that facilitate problem solving and critical thinking. For example, such factors include understanding a problem in the first place, ignoring solutions tried previously, avoiding being fixated on a solution to a similar problem and by overloading one’s brain.
- A Sharper Mind: Reminiscences of meals past Much of our lives are spent eating. As a result, we have many memories of breakfast, lunch or dinner, as well as for in between snacks. Sometimes we may want to remember what we ate on a certain occasion. This column considers what is the best way to recover the memory of what was eaten.
- A Sharper Mind: Some amount of forgetting is normal, but just how much? We often hear that it is important to be normal. Certainly we prefer to have a normal body temperature, heart rate and blood pressure. However, we probably prefer not to be normal on some occasions. I am not saying we should prefer to be abnormal, but we want to be distinguished for something, to know something or do something better than others.
- A Sharper Mind: How to not look stupid (at least some of the time) I do not mean to suggest that you or I look stupid a lot of the time.
- A Sharper Mind: Politics of remembering and the intelligencia of Indiana Part of this column will be devoted to an announcement. Another part will be devoted to my claim that Hautians are among the brightest people on the planet. Finally I will discuss a public demonstration of how important remembering can be in everyday life.
- A Sharper Mind: Forgetting names is most annoying but we aren’t raised to remember Here is a topic that we haven’t covered for quite a while. It hasn’t been covered because there were so many other things to discuss. Nevertheless, it probably will be beneficial for most of us to review the key ideas about how to learn names.
- A Sharper Mind: Finally enough failures for Forgetting Hall of Fame III A few months back, this column honored noteworthy memory failures in the Forgetting Halls of Fame I and II. It looks like these Halls of Fame have been very helpful to readers because very few failures have been happening to the people around me.
- A Sharper Mind: Is it nature or nurture? Why memory differs for men, women Here is a topic that most people find interesting: the memory performance of men and women. I will review the results of a great deal of research about gender differences in memory in this column. The research indicates that women are superior at some memory tasks and men are superior at other memory tasks. Some of the results are not surprising; some are surprising. Regardless of how the results come out, there is one overriding question. Do men and women differ in memory performance because of differences in genetic ability or because of differences in how males and females are raised and treated as adults in our culture?
- A Sharper Mind: Changing of seasons makes for forgetful time of year Ah yes, spring is upon us. This is the time that our thoughts stray to — whatever. As wonderful as spring may be, we actually are especially vulnerable to forgetting when this season arrives. Each season we become accustomed to the season’s typical temperature and season’s typical appearance of the sky. When the environment changes unexpectedly, we lose environmental cues that remind us of things to do.
- A Sharper Mind: Consider the effort we give to thinking about our problems There is a famous statue of a nude person sitting with his head looking down, with his jaw resting on the fist of the right forearm, which rests on the person’s right knee. The sculptor, a Frenchman named Auguste Rodin, called this sculpture “the thinker.”
- A Sharper Mind: Memory performs up to cultural expectations People in different cultures vary in what memory tasks they are good at. A culture refers to a group of people who share beliefs and habits of communication. The workplace is made up of different cultures, management, skilled workers and unskilled workers. Each family has its own culture. Everyone belongs to one or more cultures.
- A Sharper Mind: Brilliant ideas more elusive, likely to be forgotten Some of our thoughts elude us because they pass through our mind so quickly that we cannot remember them later. For this article, we are concerned with just important elusive thoughts. These are thoughts about brilliant ideas we may want to act on or about ideas that are practically useful, such as for something we need to do.
- A Sharper Mind: Mental dictionary, spell check provide sharp language tools This column considers how sharp we are when it comes to language.
- Herrmann: Creativity: Something for all, no matter what you think Creativity is admired whenever it is noticed. We may recognize a new invention as creative.
- A Sharper Mind: As matter of courtesy, don’t be caught faking memory Courtesy is more than knowing what fork to use and when.
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