Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Components of Language

Components of Language

Language, whether spoken, signed, or written, consists of specific components: lexicon and grammar. The lexicon is the vocabulary of a language, comprising its words. Grammar is the set of rules used to convey meaning through the lexicon. For example, English grammar adds “-ed” to most verbs to indicate past tense. Words are formed by combining phonemes, which are the basic sound units of a language. Different languages have different sets of phonemes (e.g., “ah” vs.

Language and Cognition

Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.

Language Development

Language Development

Children master language quickly and with relative ease, supported by both biological predisposition and reinforcement. B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that language is learned through reinforcement, while Noam Chomsky (1965) argued that language acquisition mechanisms are biologically determined.
The critical period for language acquisition suggests that the ability to acquire language is at its peak early in life. As people age, this proficiency decreases. Language development begins very...

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...

Elaborative Rehearsals

Elaborative Rehearsals

Elaborative rehearsal is a crucial cognitive strategy that strengthens information encoding in long-term memory by making meaningful connections between new data and pre-existing knowledge. This approach contrasts with maintenance rehearsal, which involves simple repetition without delving into the significance of the information. While maintenance rehearsal might temporarily keep information active in short-term memory, it is less effective for long-term retention.
The effectiveness of...

Chromatin Structure and RNA Splicing

Chromatin Structure and RNA Splicing

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Neural and Behavioral Changes in Older Adults from Auditory-Cognitive Training.

Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society. Annual International Conference·2025

Same author

The Impacts of Two Adaptive Auditory-Cognitive Training Paradigms on Listening to Competing Talkers.

Seminars in hearing·2025

Same author

Neural and Behavioral Changes in Older Adults from Auditory-Cognitive Training.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology·2025

Same author

Three Hundred Hertz Transcutaneous Auricular Vagus Nerve Stimulation (taVNS) Impacts Pupil Size Non-Linearly as a Function of Intensity.

Psychophysiology·2025

Same author

Emotional content and sharing on Facebook: A theory cage match.

Science advances·2023

Same author

Social media emotions annotation guide (SMEmo): Development and initial validity.

Behavior research methods·2023

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 15, 2025

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

Is codeswitching easy or difficult? Testing processing cost through the prosodic structure of bilingual speech.

Michael A Johns¹, Jonathan Steuck²

¹The University of Maryland, Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security, 7005 52(nd) Avenue, College Park, MD 20708, United States.

|March 7, 2021

Summary

Bilinguals speaking Spanish and English in New Mexico code-switch languages more rapidly than speaking one language. This unique discourse mode facilitates speech production, showing benefits at the clausal level.

Keywords:

Bilingualism Codeswitching Speech planning Speech production

More Related Videos

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Published on: September 27, 2024

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Published on: September 5, 2019

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Nov 15, 2025

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Examining Bilingual Language Control Using the Stroop Task

Published on: February 26, 2020

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Foreign Accent and Forensic Speaker Identification in Voice Lineups: The Influence of Acoustic Features Based on Prosody

Published on: September 27, 2024

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Examining Online Syntactic Processing of Spoken Complex Sentences in Chinese Using Dual-Modal Interference Tasks

Published on: September 5, 2019

Area of Science:

Psycholinguistics
Sociolinguistics
Bilingualism Research

Background:

Codeswitching, the combination of languages in conversation, is common in multilingual communities.
Previous psycholinguistic studies primarily focused on lexical-level language switching mechanisms.
Sociolinguistic research has established the structure and systematicity of spontaneous codeswitching.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the cognitive mechanisms of spontaneous codeswitching at the clausal level.
To analyze codeswitching patterns in an established Spanish-English bilingual community in New Mexico.

Main Methods:

Analysis of spontaneous codeswitching instances within a Spanish-English bilingual community.
Focus on clausal-level analysis, contrasting with previous lexical-level studies.
Measurement of global speech rates during codeswitching versus single-language use.

Main Results:

Global speech rates were significantly faster during codeswitching compared to monolingual speech.
Codeswitching was identified as a distinct discourse mode for these bilinguals.
Findings suggest that language switching, while seemingly complex, can enhance production efficiency.

Conclusions:

Codeswitching facilitates speech production in Spanish-English bilinguals at the clausal level.
The cognitive cost of language switching may be offset by benefits in overall speech rate.
This study highlights the efficiency and adaptive nature of codeswitching as a communicative strategy.