International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Human beings are uniquely able to understand sophisticated concepts through the use of language. Issues relating to comprehension encompass a wide variety of areas in linguistics, communication, and cognitive studies. Constructs regarding comprehension can be broadly divided into two theoretically diverse approaches, which diverge on the emphasis they place on cognition as an individual, self-contained process, or as a culturally situated one. The first approach is distinctly Cartesian , with emphasis primarily on what takes place within the individual. It is profoundly influenced by the work of Noam Chomsky, who sees the systematic use of rules and representations as central for understanding language systems (→  Linguistics ; Language and Social Interaction ). Within this approach issues regarding comprehension primarily have to do with how people are able to parse sentences and construe word →  meaning , with an emphasis on rules (principles and parameters) for the former, and component features for the latter. Salient aspects of this orientation include the centrality of genetic endowment – the “hard wiring” that allows human beings to learn language – and the consequent emphasis on language universals, as well as the modularity of cognitive processes. This orientation has been criticized for a variety of reasons; among those most relevant to comprehension is that it draws ... log in or subscribe to read full text