Neurocognitive Linguistics

Neurocognitive Linguistics is an interdisciplinary field that investigates the neurological basis of linguistic structure; in simpler terms, how a person's linguistic knowledge and skills are represented in the brain. Linguistic skills include the ability to speak and read, the ability to understand speech and written text, and the ability to learn these skills and to adapt to new and changing situations and to context. It is clear that all of these skills have to be supported by brain structures and neurological processes, but their exact nature remains largely unknown. Neurocognitive linguistics draws upon linguistics for the data and structures that need to be accounted for, and from neurolinguistics for information about the locations of various linguistic skills in the cortex and subcortical structures. What goes on in those locations and how information is represented in them remains little understood and is an active area of investigation in neurocognitive linguistics.