Chapter 1: Themes of Psycholinguistics
PSY374 Ch. 1 Notes
Chapter 1: Themes of Psycholinguistics MAIN POINTS Psycholinguistics: is the study of how individuals comprehend, produce, and acquire language the psychological study of language is psycholinguistics The study of psycholinguistics is part of the field of cognitive science. Cognitive science: reflects the insight of psychology, linguistics and to a lesser extent, fields such as artificial intelligence, neuroscience and philosophy (to study the mind and mental process) Psycholinguistics stresses the knowledge of language and cognitive processes involved in ordinary language use Psycholinguistics are also interested in social rules involved in language use and the brain mechanisms associated with language Contemporary interest in psycholinguistics began in the 1950s, although important precursors existed earlier in the 20th century INTRODUCTION most young ppl develop JARGON, that is more meaningful to those of the same age then older or younger ppl psychology of language deals with the mental processes that are involved in language use Three sets of processes are of primary interest: 1. language comprehension – how we perceive and understand speech/written language 2. language production – how we construct an utterance from idea to completed sentence 3. language acquisition – how children acquire language THE SCOPE OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS some of the topics studied by cognitive scientists have been problem solving, memory, imagery and language Linguistics: is the branch of science that studies the origin, structure and use of language
PSY374 Ch. 1 Notes LANGUAGE PROCESS AND LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE What knowledge of language (mental process) is needed for us to use language? o Tacit knowledge o Explicit knowledge Tacit knowledge: refers to the knowledge of how to perform various acts Explicit knowledge: refers to the knowledge of the processes or mechanisms used in these acts Ex. we sometimes know how to do something w/out knowing how we do it , for instance, a baseball pitcher might know how to throw 90miles per hour but little or no explicit knowledge of muscle groups that are involved in this act generally speaking, much of linguistic knowledge is tacit rather than explicit Four broad areas of language knowledge may be distinguished: 1. Semantics: deals with the MEANING of sentences and words 2. Syntax: involves the grammatical arrangement of words within the sentence 3. Pragmatics: entails the social rules involved in language use FOUR LANGUAGE EXAMPLES (pg.5) 1. Garden Path Sentences – the subjective impression is one following the path of a garden to a predictable destination until it is obvious that u were mistaken in ur original interpretation and thus are forced to backtrack and reinterpret the sentence – we have two meanings of the word deal in memry 2. Indirect Requests – “Can you open the door?” this is asked indirectly, this is asking ability but we understand it as a request, i.e indirectly why? Rules of language in social settings is part of our pragmatic knowledge of language indirect requests are aspects of language that forces us to consider language in a social context 3. Langauge in Aphasia Aphasia –is a language disorder due to brain damage Wernicke’s Aphasia – involves a breakdown in semantics The study of the relationship btw the brain and language is called – neurolinguistics 4. Language in Children – builds – a 1 year old uses language in 1 word functions and this implies that children might know tacit manner at least, may have learned certain pragmatic rules to guide their choice by insisting for the doll (taken as a request) or just admiring the mother to acknowledge that there is a doll
PSY374 Ch. 1 Notes
Children who commonly express themselves with two words at a time “ Baby gone” eliminate the closed class or function words – (Prepositions, conjunctions and so on) ---------- in favor of open class or content words – (nouns, verbs, adjectives) HISTORICAL CONTEXT In the early decades of the 20th century linguists turned to psychologists for insights into how human beings use language and in a later period psychologists turned to linguists for insight into the nature of language EARLY PSYCHOLINGUISTICS Edmund Huey (1968) – examined reading from the perspective of human perceptual abilities eye-voice-span – the lag btw eye position and voice when reading aloud, about 6 or 7 words tachistoscope - a machine that presents visual stimuli for very brief periods of time BEHAVIOURISM AND VERBAL BEHAVIOUR (pg 11 – end) by the 1920s behaviorism took over the mainstream of experimental psychology behaviorists favored the study of objective behavior often in laboratory animals rather then the study of mental processes strong commitment to the role of experience shaping behavior focus (reinforcement/punishment) parents shape children’s utterances – B.F Skinner – book, verbal behavior semantic differential – a tool for measuring associative meanings of words by asking people to rate words on dimensions such as good/bad and strong/weak (Osgoode) Associative chain theory: (advanced by behaviorists) a sentence consists of a chain of associations btw individual words in a sentence Chomsky suggested that: 1. Associations btw words could not possibly explain the existence of sentences such as “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” syntactically its correct but no associations 2. He also argued that language acquisition cannot be explains in terms of children’s language experience and demonstrated: Poverty of stimulus argument – there is not enough information in the language samples given to children to fully account for the richness and complexity of children’s language
PSY374 Ch. 1 Notes “ George picked the baby up” - linguists call separate units in a sentence – discontinuous constituents Chomsky’s argument is essentially that the pattern of development is based not on parental speech not innate language knowledge George Miller introduced longitudinal studies in the 1960s Eric Lundeberg pulled together evidence from aphasia, studies of delayed development ex. Mental retardation – 1967 David McNeill proposed a theory of development based on the concept of language universals Rationalism – emphasizes the role of innate factors in human behavior emphasize use of argument Empiricists – stress the role of experience in behavior – favor collection of data as a means of evaluating hypotheses (Reber, 1987)
Chapter 1: Themes of Psycholinguistics MAIN POINTS Psycholinguistics: is the study of how individuals comprehend, produce, and acquire language the psychological study of language is psycholinguistics The study of psycholinguistics is part of the field of cognitive science. Cognitive science: reflects the insight of psychology, linguistics and to a lesser extent, fields such as artificial intelligence, neuroscience and philosophy (to study the mind and mental process) Psycholinguistics stresses the knowledge of language and cognitive processes involved in ordinary language use Psycholinguistics are also interested in social rules involved in language use and the brain mechanisms associated with language Contemporary interest in psycholinguistics began in the 1950s, although important precursors existed earlier in the 20th century INTRODUCTION most young ppl develop JARGON, that is more meaningful to those of the same age then older or younger ppl psychology of language deals with the mental processes that are involved in language use Three sets of processes are of primary interest: 1. language comprehension – how we perceive and understand speech/written language 2. language production – how we construct an utterance from idea to completed sentence 3. language acquisition – how children acquire language THE SCOPE OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS some of the topics studied by cognitive scientists have been problem solving, memory, imagery and language Linguistics: is the branch of science that studies the origin, structure and use of language
PSY374 Ch. 1 Notes LANGUAGE PROCESS AND LINGUISTIC KNOWLEDGE What knowledge of language (mental process) is needed for us to use language? o Tacit knowledge o Explicit knowledge Tacit knowledge: refers to the knowledge of how to perform various acts Explicit knowledge: refers to the knowledge of the processes or mechanisms used in these acts Ex. we sometimes know how to do something w/out knowing how we do it , for instance, a baseball pitcher might know how to throw 90miles per hour but little or no explicit knowledge of muscle groups that are involved in this act generally speaking, much of linguistic knowledge is tacit rather than explicit Four broad areas of language knowledge may be distinguished: 1. Semantics: deals with the MEANING of sentences and words 2. Syntax: involves the grammatical arrangement of words within the sentence 3. Pragmatics: entails the social rules involved in language use FOUR LANGUAGE EXAMPLES (pg.5) 1. Garden Path Sentences – the subjective impression is one following the path of a garden to a predictable destination until it is obvious that u were mistaken in ur original interpretation and thus are forced to backtrack and reinterpret the sentence – we have two meanings of the word deal in memry 2. Indirect Requests – “Can you open the door?” this is asked indirectly, this is asking ability but we understand it as a request, i.e indirectly why? Rules of language in social settings is part of our pragmatic knowledge of language indirect requests are aspects of language that forces us to consider language in a social context 3. Langauge in Aphasia Aphasia –is a language disorder due to brain damage Wernicke’s Aphasia – involves a breakdown in semantics The study of the relationship btw the brain and language is called – neurolinguistics 4. Language in Children – builds – a 1 year old uses language in 1 word functions and this implies that children might know tacit manner at least, may have learned certain pragmatic rules to guide their choice by insisting for the doll (taken as a request) or just admiring the mother to acknowledge that there is a doll
PSY374 Ch. 1 Notes
Children who commonly express themselves with two words at a time “ Baby gone” eliminate the closed class or function words – (Prepositions, conjunctions and so on) ---------- in favor of open class or content words – (nouns, verbs, adjectives) HISTORICAL CONTEXT In the early decades of the 20th century linguists turned to psychologists for insights into how human beings use language and in a later period psychologists turned to linguists for insight into the nature of language EARLY PSYCHOLINGUISTICS Edmund Huey (1968) – examined reading from the perspective of human perceptual abilities eye-voice-span – the lag btw eye position and voice when reading aloud, about 6 or 7 words tachistoscope - a machine that presents visual stimuli for very brief periods of time BEHAVIOURISM AND VERBAL BEHAVIOUR (pg 11 – end) by the 1920s behaviorism took over the mainstream of experimental psychology behaviorists favored the study of objective behavior often in laboratory animals rather then the study of mental processes strong commitment to the role of experience shaping behavior focus (reinforcement/punishment) parents shape children’s utterances – B.F Skinner – book, verbal behavior semantic differential – a tool for measuring associative meanings of words by asking people to rate words on dimensions such as good/bad and strong/weak (Osgoode) Associative chain theory: (advanced by behaviorists) a sentence consists of a chain of associations btw individual words in a sentence Chomsky suggested that: 1. Associations btw words could not possibly explain the existence of sentences such as “Colorless green ideas sleep furiously” syntactically its correct but no associations 2. He also argued that language acquisition cannot be explains in terms of children’s language experience and demonstrated: Poverty of stimulus argument – there is not enough information in the language samples given to children to fully account for the richness and complexity of children’s language
PSY374 Ch. 1 Notes “ George picked the baby up” - linguists call separate units in a sentence – discontinuous constituents Chomsky’s argument is essentially that the pattern of development is based not on parental speech not innate language knowledge George Miller introduced longitudinal studies in the 1960s Eric Lundeberg pulled together evidence from aphasia, studies of delayed development ex. Mental retardation – 1967 David McNeill proposed a theory of development based on the concept of language universals Rationalism – emphasizes the role of innate factors in human behavior emphasize use of argument Empiricists – stress the role of experience in behavior – favor collection of data as a means of evaluating hypotheses (Reber, 1987)
