Newsgroup: it.cultura.linguistica.inglese
Titolo: Reading Shakespeare Has Dramatic Effect On Human Brain

From 
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/12/061218122613.htm
Reading Shakespeare Has Dramatic Effect On Human Brain
======================================================
Research at the University of Liverpool has found that Shakespearean 
language excites positive brain activity, adding further drama to the 
bard's plays and poetry.
Shakespeare uses a linguistic technique known as functional shift that 
involves, for example using a noun to serve as a verb.  Researchers 
found that this technique allows the brain to understand what a word 
means before it understands the function of the word within a sentence. 
 This process causes a sudden peak in brain activity and forces the 
brain to work backwards in order to fully understand what Shakespeare 
is trying to say.
Professor Philip Davis, from the University’s School of English, said: 
“The brain reacts to reading a phrase such as ‘he godded me’ from the 
tragedy of Coriolanus, in a similar way to putting a jigsaw puzzle 
together. If it is easy to see which pieces slot together you become 
bored of the game, but if the pieces don’t appear to fit, when we know 
they should, the brain becomes excited.  By throwing odd words into 
seemingly normal sentences, Shakespeare surprises the brain and catches 
it off guard in a manner that produces a sudden burst of activity - a 
sense of drama created out of the simplest of things.”
Experts believe that this heightened brain activity may be one of the 
reasons why Shakespeare’s plays have such a dramatic impact on their 
readers.
cheers,
Penquo. No, I mean Peltio.
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 involves, for example using a noun to serve as a verb.  
Here's another, less learned, example: "to cold-nose".
From: 
http://www.snopes.com/critters/farce/hindlick.htm
Our story is not complete without telling of a man who could not give a 
convincing explanation about his broken arm. He kept muttering 
something about trying to stick his arm through his car window that he 
thought was down.
That was the public version, in private, he confessed that it happened 
when his wife brought some potted plants indoors after they had been 
out on the patio all day. A friendly garter snake had hidden in one of 
the pots, and later slithered out across the floor, and the wife 
spotted it.
"I was in the bathtub when I heard her scream," he related. "I thought 
she was being murdered, so I jumped out of the tub, and ran to help 
her. I didn't even grab a towel." "When I ran into the living room, she 
yelled that a snake was under the couch. I got down on all fours to 
look for it, and just then my dog came up from behind and 'cold- nosed' 
me. I guess I thought it was the snake, and I fainted dead away. "My 
wife thought I'd had a heart attack and called for an ambulance. I was 
still groggy when the medics arrived, and lifted me onto a stretcher." 
"Just as they were carrying me out, the snake came out from under the 
couch, and obviously frightened one of the medics. He dropped his end 
of the stretcher . . . and that is when I broke my arm."
cheers,
Peltio
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LIPSISC)

"Peltio" <pel...@twilight.zone> wrote in message
news:mn.9c657d6cb...@twilight.zone...

Even more stimulating to the brain is reading Shakespeare with the book held
upside-down. More stimulating still is taking notes on the text, writing as
Da Vinci did, with the left hand instead of the right, with the notes being
the mirror image of those normally written by the right hand. I have not as
yet been able to comfortably write upside-down mirror-image notes, but I am
working on it. Be warned that such activity in public places can have
unpleasant results, as you would discover should you attempt it while riding
the New York subways.
Joe from Massachusetts
«left-handed people seem to be more susceptible to fatal accidents (7.9% vs.
1.5%), groping, as they must, through the mirror images of their daily
lives.»
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,972749,00.html