Psycholinguistics

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigationJump to search
Part of a series on

Linguistics

 Outline
 History
 Index

Subfields[hide]
 Acquisition
 Anthropological
 Applied
 Computational
 Discourse analysis
 Forensic
 Historical
 Lexicography
 Morphology
 Morphophonology
 Neurolinguistics
 Philosophy of language
 Phonetics
 Phonology
 Pragmatics
 Psycholinguistics
 Semantics
 Sociolinguistics
 Syntax

Grammatical theories[show]

Topics[show]

Portal

 v
 t
  e

Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the interrelation between linguistic

factors and psychological aspects.[1]
The field is concerned with psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire,
use, comprehend and produce language. The discipline is mainly concerned with the mechanisms in
which languages are processed and represented in the mind and brain.[2]
Modern research makes use of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, and information
science to study how the mind-brain processes language, and less so the known processes of social
sciences, human development, communication theories and infant development, among others.
There are a number of sub-disciplines with non-invasive techniques for studying the neurological
workings of the brain; for example, neurolinguistics has become a field in its own right. Initial forays
into psycholinguistics were found in philosophical and educational fields, due mainly to their location
in departments other than applied sciences (e.g., cohesive data on how the human brain
functioned).
Psycholinguistics is concerned with the cognitive faculties and processes that are necessary in order
for grammatical forms of language to be produced from a mental grammar and the lexicon. It is also
concerned with the perception of these constructions by a listener. Developmental
psycholinguistics,as a branch of psycholinguistics, concerns itself with the child's ability to learn
language

Areas of study[edit]
Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field. Hence, it is studied by researchers from a variety of
different backgrounds, such as psychology, cognitive science, linguistics, speech and language
pathology, and discourse analysis. Psycholinguists study many different topics, but these topics can
generally be divided into answering the following questions: (1) how do children acquire language
(language acquisition)?; (2) how do people comprehend language (language comprehension)?; (3)
how do people produce language (language production)?; and (4) how do people who already know
one language acquire another one(second language acquisition)?
Subdivisions in psycholinguistics are also made based on the different components that make up
human language.
Linguistics-related areas:

 Phonetics and phonology are concerned with the study of speech sounds. Within
psycholinguistics, research focuses on how the brain processes and understands these sounds.
 Morphology is the study of word structures, especially the relationships between related words
(such as dog and dogs) and the formation of words based on rules (such as plural formation).
 Syntax is the study of the patterns which dictate how words are combined to form sentences.
 Semantics deals with the meaning of words and sentences. Where syntax is concerned with the
formal structure of sentences, semantics deals with the actual meaning of sentences.
 Pragmatics is concerned with the role of context in the interpretation of meaning.
A researcher interested in language comprehension may study word recognition during reading to
examine the processes involved in the extraction of orthographic, morphological, phonological,
and semantic information from patterns in printed text. A researcher interested in language
production might study how words are prepared to be spoken starting from the conceptual or
semantic level (this concerns connotation, and possibly can be examined through the conceptual
framework concerned with the semantic differential). Developmental psycholinguists study infants'
and children's ability to learn and process language.[3]
Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or ‘the psychology of language’ encompasses so many different aspects of
language, from language acquisition, to syntax and semantics, phonology and morphology.
With current and future technological advances and with the collaboration of other
disciplines, psycholinguistics aims to advance our understanding of the human brain.

Psycholinguistics involves:

 language processing – reading, writing, speaking, listening and memory [1]. For
instance, how words on paper are turned into meaning in the mind.
 lexical storage and retrieval – the way words are stored in our minds and used. How
we are able to map words onto objects such as ‘ball’ and actions such as ‘kick’ and ‘love’
and access these when needed.
 language acquisition – how language is first learnt and used by children. For example,
learning the rules of grammar and how to communicate with other people.
 special circumstances – how internal and external factors can impact language
development, such as twins and their use of ‘twin language’, the influence of hearing and
vision impairments on acquisition, and how damage to the brain can affect certain
aspects of language.
 the brain and language – evolutionary explanations of why humans have the capacity
to use language, and the parts of the brain concerned with different areas of language,
also considering whether or not non-human animals have the ability to use language
too.
 second language acquisition and use – looking at bilingualism and how individuals
can learn a second language and are able to differentiate between them.
The common aim of psycholinguistics is “to find out about the structures and processes
which underlie a human’s ability to speak and understand language” [2].

Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological
and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and
understand language.
Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of
cohesive data on how the human brain functioned.
Modern research makes use of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and information theory to
study how the brain processes language.
There are a number of subdisciplines; for example, as non-invasive techniques for studying the
neurological workings of the brain become more and more widespread, neurolinguistics has become
a field in its own right.
Psycholinguistics covers the cognitive processes that make it possible to generate a grammatical
and meaningful sentence out of vocabulary and grammatical structures, as well as the processes
that make it possible to understand utterances, words, text, etc.
Developmental psycholinguistics studies infants' and children's ability to learn language, usually with
experimental or at least quantitative methods (as opposed to naturalistic observations such as those
made by Jean Piaget in his research on the development of children).
Psycholinguistics is interdisciplinary in nature and is studied by people in a variety of fields, such as
psychology, cognitive science, and linguistics.
There are several subdivisions within psycholinguistics that are based on the components that make
up human language.

Psycholinguistics is the study of the mental aspects of language and speech. It is

primarily concerned with the ways in which language is represented and
processed in the brain.

A branch of both linguistics and psychology, psycholinguistics is part of the field

of cognitive science. Adjective: psycholinguistic.

The term psycholinguistics was introduced by American psychologist Jacob

Robert Kantor in his 1936 book, "An Objective Psychology of Grammar." The
term was popularized by one of Kantor's students, Nicholas Henry Pronko, in a
1946 article "Language and Psycholinguistics: A Review." The emergence
of psycholinguistics as an academic discipline is generally linked to an influential
seminar at Cornell University in 1951.

Pronunciation: si-ko-lin-GWIS-tiks

Also known as: Psychology of language

Etymology: From the Greek, "mind" + the Latin, "tongue"

On Psycholinguistics
"Psycholinguistics is the study of the mental mechanisms that make it possible
for people to use language. It is a scientific discipline whose goal is a coherent
theory of the way in which language is produced and understood," says Alan
Garnham in his book, "Psycholinguistics: Central Topics."

Two Key Questions

According to David Carrol in "Psychology of Language," "At its heart,
psycholinguistic work consists of two questions. One is, What knowledge of
language is needed for us to use language? In a sense, we must know a language
to use it, but we are not always fully aware of this knowledge.... The other primary
psycholinguistic question is, What cognitive processes are involved in the
ordinary use of language? By 'ordinary use of language,' I mean such things as
understanding a lecture, reading a book, writing a letter, and holding a
conversation. By 'cognitive processes,' I mean processes such as perception,
memory, and thinking. Although we do few things as often or as easily as
speaking and listening, we will find that considerable cognitive processing is
going on during those activities."

How Language Is Done

In the book, "Contemporary Linguistics," linguistics expert William O'Grady
explains, "Psycholinguists study how word meaning, sentence meaning,
and discourse meaning are computed and represented in the mind. They study
how complex words and sentences are composed in speech and how they are
broken down into their constituents in the acts of listening and reading. In short,
psycholinguists seek to understand how language is done... In general,
psycholinguistic studies have revealed that many of the concepts employed in the
analysis of sound structure, word structure, and sentence structure also play a
role in language processing. However, an account of language processing also
requires that we understand how these linguistic concepts interact with other
aspects of human processing to enable language production and comprehension."

An Interdisciplinary Field
"Psycholinguistics... draws on ideas and knowledge from a number of associated
areas, such as phonetics, semantics, and pure linguistics. There is a constant
exchange of information between psycholinguists and those working in
neurolinguistics, who study how language is represented in the brain. There are
also close links with studies in artificial intelligence. Indeed, much of the early
interest in language processing derived from the AI goals of designing computer
programs that can turn speech into writing and programs that can recognize the
human voice," says John Field in "Psycholinguistics: A Resource Book for
Students."

On Psycholinguistics and Neuroimaging

According to Friedmann Pulvermüller in "Word Processing in the Brain as
Revealed by Neurophysiological Imaging," "Psycholinguistics has classically
focused on button press tasks and reaction time experiments from which
cognitive processes are being inferred. The advent of neuroimaging opened new
research perspectives for the psycholinguist as it became possible to look at the
neuronal mass activity that underlies language processing. Studies of brain
correlates of psycholinguistic processes can complement behavioral results, and
in some cases...can lead to direct information about the basis of psycholinguistic
processes."