Page | 66 wot Language is one of the most connection @ important ways in which the social brain oa understandings #™"" go . — impac t ce ea makes connections, enhances & , directly § eel taan areal might masteated 225 ‘ . k kind * dissac Pps cr oinfitnication ages a connections, and severs connections NOWAS Cr ere ra PIS UMS sscigkss among people. Language is our primary Ea? "5 brain ER BOSC h= medium of social exchange, grounding 8 in ‘ormation *T>4 inguistic ““5 2 [opeay ° . MSfstener message, Sa Pm Pe {~ and elaborating our selves and our ~~ relationships in every conversation. Chapter 7’ However, language goes well beyond . . eos ersonal connections to connect us Action at a Distance: The Invisible P : culturally through stories, songs, and Force of Language shared manners of speech. Language also provides the formal framework that defines many of our social institutions. ’ The lead author is Howard Nusbaum, Ph.D., Language gives form and substance to Professor of Psychology and Computational the governance and behavior of every Neuroscience, and co-director of the Center for social institution from education to law Cognitive and Social Neuroscience at the to religion. Clearly there are many ways University of Chicago. He has served as the in which language serves to knit us Chair of the Psychology Department since 1997. iether both f m d jaf 1 He has served as the editor for the International oge er Ol ormaity and mrormally. Journal of Speech Technology and is on the For a linguist, all of these uses can be editorial board of Brain & Language, and has analyzed in terms of the structure of edited several books on spoken language sentences and their content. However, processing. His research interests include structure and content do not, on their spoken language use, mechanisms of learning " id lata ait and attention, and the role of sleep in learning. own merits, provide a comple e pic ure His recent research has investigated the social of how language can have