Vocabulary Sponging - How brain absorbs words while you read a book of fiction?

 

You are reading a book and you come across a word that is new to you. You type the word in Google search or pull out your dictionary to check its meaning. And like this, a new word gets lodged in your brain in that moment. You are strolling in the park and you pass by a group of young guys who utter a slang word that you have never heard before. Again, you type the slang in Google search box and check its meaning. Another word gets stored in the vocabulary database of your brain. Then one day, an elderly relative visits your house and as she’s talking to your parents in the native language, she says a word that you feel is interesting, and you jot it down in your notebook.

 

Every day (If you are a writer, then every moment probably), your brain absorbs zillions of new words, meticulously collecting them from the world, from your experiences, from books, and information, and storing them in your inner library. How does this happen? Why are we humans able to learn new words while the lion and the ants seem totally helpless and incapable of grasping them. Unless it is a movie with animal characters, you wouldn’t likely hear a bear say “hey dude, what’s up?” or a crocodile tell you that he would like to remain “lowkey.”

And even though every creature has its own vocabulary, humans alone can grasp it in a way that no other creature can, thanks to their super-intelligent brain.

 

Vocabulary sponging refers to a subconscious process in which a person’s brain acts like a sponge. As they read a book of fiction, this sponge absorbs or extracts interesting words from the book. The brain doesn’t just absorb a word, it also absorbs its meaning, also generates interpretations related to it, and decides when and how it can be used. Until then, the word will be stored in the brain’s vocabulary database.  

 

When it comes to learning words and retaining them in memory, fiction proves way better than just ordinary dictionaries, manuals, or encyclopaedias. You are more likely to recall a word that you learned while reading a short story more than a word you learned from a typical vocabulary flashcard. In fact, many of the words were originally coined or invented in fiction novels. These words come under the category of “neologisms.”

 

For example, the slang “nadsat” was coined in Anthony Burgess’ novel A Clockwork Orange. Famous terms like “freelance,” “Big Brother,” and “Catch-22” too were first used in famous novels.

 

Science behind the process of “Vocabulary Sponging”

What happens in your brain when it absorbs a new word like a sponge and stows it away in your vocabulary database?

 

Well, first of all, it does something called the “Inferential Mapping” to fill the unobserved gaps or empty areas in the brain using the newly-inputted information of the word.

 

The mapping process involves three parts of the brain - Visual Word Form Area (VWFA), Wernicke’s Area, and Hippocampus.

 

Neural Triangulation

This mapping starts with a process called “neural triangulation.” The brain activates three of its regions to decode the word’s meaning. A region called the “Visual Word Form Area (VWFA)” scans and studies the visual form or the physical shape of the letters.

 

The second part, called the Wernicke’s Area processes the linguistic meaning, syntax, and other details of the word. The Hippocampus, the emotion manager, starts forming connections between this new word and your existing memories. Using these details, the brain constructs a “High-Dimensional Semantic Space,” where it pins the word based on its neighbouring words.

 

 

The second step is “Statistical Induction”

Human brain is a fabulous pattern-recognition machine. When it encounters a new or unfamiliar word like “pulchritudinous,” it starts the process of “statistical induction.” It starts associating this new word with words like “beautiful,” “radiant,” or “stunning.” Based on how and where the word is used, it calculates the probability of the word’s correct and nearest meaning. A part called the “Inferior Frontal Gyrus” or the “context checker” narrows down the word’s meaning through elimination of unsuitable ones.

 

The third step is simply deep encoding through repetition

When your brain picks up a new word from a book, novel, or a story, your brain initiates the process of “narrative transport” by releasing chemicals like oxytocin and dopamine. These chemicals signal the brain that the information being processed is important and needs to be paid attention to. In fiction, this impulse becomes even more charged up due to the addition of emotion. Amygdala’ the brain’s emotional center, becomes active. The more books you read, the more this process triggers in the brain, the deeper new vocabulary gets encoded in the brain.

Inside a part called the “temporal lobe,” the brain creates a placeholder or marker for the new word. Another part, called the prefrontal cortex, uses the story to fill the placeholder. And then, the next time you read that word, the brain fires that neural pattern again. By repetition of this process, the new word becomes assimilated in your memory.

 

Let’s explore this fascinating feature with a short story:

 

 

Solmikki was standing in his grand bedroom in the hilltop castle. Outside the window, sun was dressing up in orange lipstick, bidding farewell for the day and returning to the other part of the world. Flanked by mountains on all sides, the castle was glittering with snow at this time of the year.

Inside the vast bedroom, dead tree logs were making crackling sounds. On a table covered in satin spreads, tiny golden-yellow flames flickered from the tops of three fancy silver-black candlesticks. Up above on the ceiling, two chandeliers collected their light and spitted it throughout the room. Silhouettes of sparkles were dancing on the walls and on the floor, on a patch near the bed’s foot and one where the bookshelf stood. 

Slinging from the upper-third compartment of the bookshelf, a hardcover book, as thick as the potbelly of the castle’s chef, was quivering. The gold foil calligraphy on its front cover was pulsing. It wasn’t an ordinary day for the book. 

It was, in fact, the most auspicious day of the year when Solmikki would pull out the book from the shelf and pick a magic spell from the book and cast it with his ancestral magic wand. Dressed in royal, velvety robes, Solmikki proceeded towards the bookshelf to pick up the Magic Book of Spirit Invocations. 

He pulled out the book. Abraduberahoohoodaamissishoobashoobashoobadimritonnhootanaashtuhootanaashtusumhmmmrooooisshhhh aahhh!

He had just finished reciting the spell and was about to wave his magic wand when something diverted his attention. He stopped. He turned his head and saw two large glowing yellow eyes staring at him from the glass window. Solmikki shivered and recoiled in horror. 

One moment was already gone. To avoid wasting another, he rushed to the second window, pushed open its wooden shackles and peered through the glass. A gigantic purple arm reached out to him from an open slit in the glass and started tickling the hair on his head with its pointy, hair-covered, claw-like fingers. 

Solkmikki fainted and collapsed on the floor. His scream was so nimble that it wouldn’t even have reached the servant in the adjoining room, let alone his guards. Outside the castle, the monster untethered the castle from the mountain of ice, towed it on his back, and proceeded to take it to the land where his master Googoodonyn was waiting. 

For years, Googoodonyn had his eyes set on Solmikki’s magic powers and his kingdom. After waiting for four thousand eighty two years, he had decided to abduct the entire castle and hire Solmikki in his utterly-shadowy BluBlaBoo kingdom. 

Meanwhile, a traveller named Nanto was leisurely strolling down a mountain slope when a glossy black book fell near his shoes. He picked it up. On the cover, bright golden letters were pulsing like metallic mirrors. He tossed the book in his bag and continued walking towards his home.

Different elements of vocabulary in this short story, including words and phrases, will trigger different areas of the brain to lodge themselves in the brain.

 

For example, the Spell: “Abraduberahoohoodaamissishoo...” When the brain hears this gibberish term, at first it feels puzzled because it cannot grasp its meaning or associate it with a word or phrase. So, the prefrontal cortex looks at the narrative setup instead to decide how to categorize the term. After reading that the character of Solmikki pulled out a Magic Book of Spirit Invocations and recited this term, the brain stows it away under the category of “incantations.”

Another word from the book, the name “Googoodonyn” signifies to the brain that it is related to a powerful character or a villainous entity due to the narration associated with it in the story. Since he is the type of character who had his eyes set on Solmikki’s kingdom and someone who abducted this character, his name, though bizarre, is stored in the brain with the association of a villain.

Another word, the kingdom’s name “BluBlaBoo” also illustrates this process. Although the sound of this word indicates that the word refers to something bouncy, babylike, or rhythmic, the story actually depicts it as a “shadowy” kingdom. By creating a contrast between the babylike vibe displayed by the sound of the word and the context “shadowy,” the reader stores the word with the association of uncanny or dark fiction, something that is strange and sinister.

 

The name of the character Nanto, who arrives in the ending of the story, is stored in the brain through the process of “associative mapping.” Although the brain is not too familiar with Nanto, it knows that this character discovered Solmikki’s book on the hill. So, the brain creates a “neural bridge” between the two characters to recall the word from the memory whenever required in the future.

 

Lastly, the word “Nimble” used in the story shows how fiction can “redefine” vocabulary. Nimble, the word generally refers to quick and light in movement. In this story, it seems to refer to something which is “small, faint, and delicate.”

Read more on Craft of Writing and Storytelling!