Apples on noses

Speaking a second language can change everything from problem-solving skills to personality. It is almost as if you are two people, says Catherine de Lange.

“Mon espirit paratage — My two minds”, appeared in the New Scientist of May 5th, 2012. The Washington Post included her article online.

■→Educators once opposed raising bilingual children. Experts now say it’s beneficial.

Ms. de Lange’s purpose was to compare monolingual and bilingual children in tests on ■→syntax, that is, ways to put words together. She wrote:
Both monolinguals and bilinguals could see the mistake in phrases such as “apples growed on trees”, but differences arose when they considered nonsensical sentences such as “apples grow on noses”. The monolinguals, flummoxed by the silliness of the phrase, incorrectly reported an error, whereas the bilinguals gave the right answer.

Children get to hear or read fairy tales. Whether the kid speaks one or more languages, it is only important that he or she comprehends the words: there was a fairy land, a long time ago, where apples grew on noses.

Ms. de Lange did not present her tasks in the article. It is probable she had misconstrued them ■→deictically. The children did not know what noses the talk was about, whether to focus on syntax or ■→pragmatics, that is, talk in context.

Without information on the context, we cannot answer. Children happen to take up tasks without telling there is a problem. Saying there is something wrong is more of a grown-up business.

Ms. de Lange wrote she spoke English and French. Let us think what the world would have to become to follow her study.

Monolingual speakers of French would carry shields instead of umbrellas, for heavy rain. They would belong with the people who get “flummoxed” with figures of speech, and it rains halberds in French, when it rains cats and dogs in English (in which latter case we would have to think monolingual English people cannot keep appointments, staying home):

■→Larousse online, Il tombe hallebardes, it’s raining cats and dogs.

We would have to dread multilingual medics. They would be the people not to care what words mean literally, and a cardiac case might serve a game of opinion:

■→American Heritage Dictionary, changes of the heart.

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Notes for Emily Dickinson’s poetry

Poems
Life | Love | Nature | Time and Eternity

What the world is like really: both the languages, English as well as French, have spoken and written forms. What we write as bread in English is un pain, in French. What we write as pain in English, is nothing even potentially pleasant, whatever the language.

Speakers of English and French have had much contact, in history as well. It must be that word shape alone is not sufficient to make the psychological reality of language, and people rely on semantics, that is, word sense. Otherwise, either the French or the English (or both the peoples) would have changed their words. It depends on deictics, if we say a word has another meaning.

Speaking more than one language does not bring confusion. From my experience, I would say it strengthens semantics. The brief introduction on language form here, can help exercise syntax:
■→GRAMMAR WEBLOG, WHAT IS LANGUAGE FORM?

■→This text is also available in Polish.

Experimentation on children raises ethical concerns, and Ms. de Lange reports infant brain scans for experimental purposes. There is no way to obtain informed consent from an infant. I do not believe such scans would bring insight. Feel welcome to read,
■→Human brains, parameters, and devices.

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