Annotation and citation of "The Southpaw's Secret Semantics"

Brownlee, Shannon. “The Southpaw’s Secret Semantics.” U.S. News &World Report 24 Feb. 1992: 66. Print.

In the article, “The Southpaw’s Secret Semantics” Brownlee discusses the development of language in left-handed versus right-handed people. There are many clues that left-handed people have provided into how the brain works.  It is a belief that language is learned differently in left-handed people than in right-handed people.  Debates have been ongoing regarding whether language is learned through the environment or genes.  It has been known to researchers that left-handed people operate differently from those who are right-handed and that different areas of the brain are used.  One researcher suggested that if language is associated to genes than a right-handed family with at least one left-handed family member would learn language differently from a right-handed family with no lefties.  After conducting several experiments it was realized that right-handed people from left-handed families use associations and memories to learn language and that right-handed people from right-handed families use the rules of grammar to learn language.  These results heightened the belief that rules of grammar are located in the left hemisphere of the brain while words related to memory and association may be located in both areas of the brain.  To one researcher this evidence may link the possibility that the left-handed gene(s) may be linked to how the brain organizes language.  Eventually, with a better understanding of the different learning styles it may be determined the parts that environment and genes play in the learning of language.

I found this article interesting due to the fact that I never really considered the relationship between language development and how a person learned language based on whether you are left or right handed.  I do believe that children are born with some sense of language and that it is fine tuned after birth through experiences.  I feel that this article will be a valuable resource for my topic on how left handed people are different.