language comprehension
Processing spoken words
Language comprehension is the ability to understand spoken or written language—to extract meaning from words, sentences, and discourse.
The term appears in psychology, linguistics, and education: The child's language comprehension developed faster than her speech.
Comprehension involves not just recognizing words but grasping grammar, context, tone, and implication.
Reading comprehension and listening comprehension are the two main forms.
- word saladMeaningless verbal confusion
- wordLinguistic meaning unit
- readComprehend written language
- emotional toneFeeling behind expression
- semanticsStudy of linguistic meaning
prosody · cultural context · morphology · decoding · phonology · lip-reading · working memory · syntax · parsing · inference · context clues · pragmatics · spoken word · gesture recognition · prediction · lexicon · mental imagery · inner voice
- psycholinguisticsword recognition, tip of the tongue, tip-of-the-tongue, tip of tongue, priming
- semanticsmeaning, denotation, sense, connotation, reference
- hearingear, cochlea, hearing loss, deaf, hearing test
- Temporal Lobehippocampus, entorhinal cortex, amygdala, CA1, hilus
language comprehensionspeaking
Oral expression of language
verbal expression · writing · encoding · articulation · utterance
language comprehensionincomprehension
Lack of understanding
misunderstanding · language impairment · confusion · misinterpretation · aphasia
language comprehensionvisual processing
How brains interpret images
spatial reasoning · pattern recognition · sensory perception