| Sumario: | Although it is commonly assumed that the brain's left hemisphere performs the function of producing language, recent research indicates that the right hemisphere processes some forms of familiar language. Familiar language includes things people say every day like “How are you?” along with idiomatic expressions like “It takes one to know one.” Such phrases are understood as a whole unit and by direct association with a situation rather than on the basis of words and grammatical structure. Novel sentences, which are processed by the left hemisphere, require a knowledge of syntax and word meaning to be interpreted. In tests, people with right-hemisphere brain damage were severely deficient in understanding familiar phrases, yet they easily understood novel sentences. The opposite was true of those with left-hemisphere damage.
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