by Judith Kaltenbrunner
Why fluid language remains in our brains
by Judith Kaltenbrunner
Why fluid language remains in our brains
Language has been a part of our lives since childhood. Interestingly certain phrases stay in our memory subconsciously.
“An apple a day keeps the doctor away”
As children we learn “An apple a day keeps the doctor away” and it sticks in our heads until we are old and grey. Somehow it’s like those phrases just want to keep their place on our minds.
Why can we remember some phrases so well?
A lot of phrases that stick to our minds rhyme. According to Fluency heuristic, rhymes can be processed faster and noticed more easily. Likewise, language becomes more fluid and gets therfore stored in our brains. It’s just a question of time until rhymed phrases pop up in our minds again.
Rhymes tie us up.
This can be a curse or a blessing at the same time. The shackles of some rhymes are not to get rid of and follow us whether we want to or not.
Rhymes can influence our decisions.
According to the rhyme-as-reason-effect, we rather believe rhymed phrases than unrhymed phrases. And as to the Keats heuristic, we will always feel, that rhymed sentences are more valuable than unrhymed sentences.
It’s not without reason that we plunge into versifying “Gstanzl” or put up posters in rhyme on round birthdays – it’s a must and almost a compulsion.
Rhymes are definitely a part of the Austrian culture.
But honestly, who doesn’t feel like a hero or a heroine when writing a poem for Mother’s Day? This is what rhyme makes so special. It ties us up, but also makes language more precious.
References: “La, le, lu” by Heinz Rühmann | Rhyme-as-reason-effect/ Keats heuristic/ Fluency heuristic by McGlone and Tofighbakhsh “The Keats heuristic: Rhyme as reason in aphorism interpretation.” (In: Poetics, 1999, Vol 26, edition 4.) | Other used phrases are sayings without an autor | Content creation by Judith Kaltenbrunner