Psycholinguistics investigates the mental
mechanisms underlying language processing.
(Cognitive)
"Psycholinguistics
is the study of the cognitive process that supports the acquisition and use of
language"
Schmitt, N.
"Psycholinguistics
is the study of how the mind equips human beings to handle language"
Simpson, J
Psycholinguistics
is the study of the language processing mechanisms. Psycholinguistics deals with
the mental processes a person uses in producing and understanding language.
It is concerned with the relationship
between language and the human mind, for example, how word, sentence, and
discourse meaning are represented and computed in the mind.
How
to perceive words and store them in the mind, how to understand a sentence, how
to learn to read, how language and writing systems influence mental
organizations.
Two Aspects:
Language
Comprehension –how we understand the meaning of words and sentences (receptive process)
Language
Production –how we speak and use language (productive process)
The Structure of Language
Language is
a system of symbols and rules that is used for meaningful communication. A
system of communication has to meet certain criteria in order to be considered
a language:
·
A language uses symbols, which are
sounds, gestures, or written characters that represent objects, actions,
events, and ideas. Symbols enable people to refer to objects that are in
another place or events that occurred at a different time.
·
A language is meaningful and
therefore can be understood by other users of that language.
·
A language is generative,
which means that the symbols of a language can be combined to produce an
infinite number of messages.
·
A language has rules that govern how
symbols can be arranged. These rules allow people to understand messages in
that language even if they have never encountered those messages before.
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.
HISTORY
Over
the centuries...
Language discussions of language acquisition and of the origins of
language.
Nineteenth
century...
Parallel interest in the psychology of adult language development
Twentieth
century...
First half: Behaviorism
Second half: Miller and Chomsky
Second
century....
First
half: Behavourism.
Second
half: Miller and Chomsky.
Today...
Psycholinguistics
is a multidisciplinary field, drawing upon cognitive psychology, theoretical
linguistics.....
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