Definition
One avenue for the communication of thoughts, feelings, and/or ideas, language is comprised of symbols (i.e., vocabulary/words), which are socially agreed upon by members of a given community/culture (e.g., American-English, French, Spanish, etc.), and includes various regional dialects within those communities/cultures. Language requires the rule-governed use of these symbols (e.g., use of grammar, putting words together to form complete sentences, etc.) and typically includes four domains: (1) verbal expression (e.g., speaking aloud), (2) written expression (e.g., composing a letter, an e-mail, or an essay, etc.), (3) auditory comprehension (e.g., the understanding what others say aloud), and (4) reading comprehension (e.g., the understanding of written text). In the deaf culture, however, various (unspoken) sign languages may be used in lieu of spoken language (e.g., American Sign Language, language does not include the motoric act of moving the articulators (e.g., the...
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Further Reading
Brown, C. M., & Hagoort, P. H. (Eds.). (2000). The neurocognition of language. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Owens, R. E. (2014). Language development: An introduction (8th ed.). Edinburgh Gate: Pearson Education Limited.
Papathanasiou, I., Coppens, P., & Potagas, C. (Eds.). (2013). Aphasia and related neurogenic communication disorders. Burlington: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2018 Springer International Publishing AG, part of Springer Nature
About this entry
Cite this entry
Dietz, A. (2018). Language. In: Kreutzer, J.S., DeLuca, J., Caplan, B. (eds) Encyclopedia of Clinical Neuropsychology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_893
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-57111-9_893
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-57110-2
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-57111-9
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences