What Do Words Buy You?

Here is a fascinating half hour radio show -- NPR's Radiolab -- discussing words.

First they interview a brain damaged woman who lost her ability to read, therefore became a teacher of sign language to the deaf, and encountered a 27 year old man who had no language. She explains how she discovered that he had no language and her efforts to give him language and the wonderful tale of when he "got it", his own Helen Keller moment.

Next some language researchers talk about their research. The one that grabs me is the exploration of the fact that rats can't connect spatial thoughts with colours, and the researchers claim that human kids fail at this task until they are six years old. They claim the crucial breakthrough for humans is to use language to connect the separate centres of the brain that deal with spatial concepts and colour concepts.

Finally they have a bit where a Shakespearean scholar talks about Shakespeares "word chemistry" and the new words he left us with.

It is an excellent program. Listen to it.

Here is the web site for NPR's Radiolab show for that day with two other bits to listen to.