Psycholinguistics Definition and Examples

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 book An
Objective Psychology of Grammar (1936). The term was popularized by one of Kantor's students, Henry
Pronko, in the article "Language and Psycholinguistics: A Review" (1946). 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." (Alan Garnham, Psycholinguistics: Central Topics. Psychology Press, 1985)
Two Key Questions
"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." (David
Carroll, Psychology of Language, 5th ed. Thomson, 2008) 
How Language Is Done
"Psycholinguists study how word meaning, sentence meaning, and discoursemeaning 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." (William O'Grady, et al., Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. Bedford/St. Martin's,
2001)
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." (John Field, Psycholinguistics: A Resource Book for Students.
Routledge, 2003)
On Psycholinguistics and Neuroimaging
"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." (Friedmann
Pulvermü ller, "Word Processing in the Brain as Revealed by Neurophysiological Imaging." The Oxford
Handbook of Psycholinguistics, ed. by M. Gareth Gaskell. Oxford University Press, 2009)
What are Neurolinguistics?
The interdisciplinary study of language processing in the brain, with an emphasis on the processing of spoken
language when certain areas of the brain are damaged. It is also called neurological linguistics.
The journal Brain and Language offers this description of neurolinguistics: "human language
or communication (speech, hearing, reading, writing, or nonverbal modalities) related to any aspect of the
brain or brain function" (quoted by Elisabeth Ahlsén in Introduction to Neurolinguistics, 2006).
In a pioneering article published in Studies in Linguistics in 1961, Edith Trager characterized neurolinguistics
as "a field of interdisciplinary study which does not have a formal existence. Its subject matter is the
relationship between the human nervous system and language" ("The Field of Neurolinguistics"). Since then
the field has evolved rapidly.
Example
"The primary goal of the field of neurolinguistics is to understand and explicate the neurological bases of
language and speech, and to characterize the mechanisms and processes involve in language use. The study of
neuorolinguistics is broad-based; it includes language and speech impairments in the adult aphasias and in
children, as well as reading disabilities and the lateralization of function as it relates to language and speech
processing."
(Shari R. Baum and Sheila E. Blumstein, "Aphasia: Psycholinguistic Approaches." International Encyclopedia of
Linguistics, 2nd ed., edited by William Frawley. Oxford University Press, 2003)
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Neurolinguistics
"Which disciplines have to be taken into account in neurolinguistics? Brain and Language states that its
interdisciplinary focus includes the fields of linguistics, neuroanatomy, neurology, neurophysiology,
philosophy, psychology, psychiatry, speech pathology, and computer science. These disciplines may be the
ones most involved in neurolinguistics but several other disciplines are also highly relevant, having
contributed to theories, methods, and findings in neurolinguistics. They include neurobiology, anthropology,
chemistry, cognitive science, and artificial intelligence. Thus, the humanities, and medical, natural, and social
sciences, as well as technology are all represented."
(Elisabeth Ahlsén, Introduction to Neurolinguistics. John Benjamins, 2006)
Co-evolution of Language and the Brain
"It is uncontroversial, in scientific circles at least, that the human brain has undergone very rapid growth in
recent evolution. The brain has doubled in size in less than one million years. The cause of this 'runaway'
growth (Wills, 1993) is a matter of conjecture and endless debate. A strong case can be made that the
expansion of the brain was a consequence of the development of spoken language and the survival advantage
that possessing a language confers. The areas of the brain that underwent greatest development appear to be
specifically associated with language: the frontal lobes and the junction of the parietal, occipital and temporal
lobes (the POT junction . . .)." (John C. L. Ingram, Neurolinguistics: An Introduction to Spoken Language
Processing and Its Disorders. Cambridge University Press, 2007)
Neurolinguistics and Research in Speech Production
"The nature of neurolinguistic programmes has attracted a great deal of research in recent years, especially
in relation to speech production. It is evident, for example, that the brain does not issue motor commands one
segment at a time. . . . When we consider the whole range of factors that affect the timing of speech events
(such as breathing rate, the movement and coordination of the articulators, the onset of vocal-fold vibration,
the location of stress, and the placement and duration of pauses), it is evident that a highly sophisticated
control system must be employed, otherwise speech would degenerate into an erratic, disorganized set of
noises. It is now recognized that many areas of the brain are involved: in particular, the cerebellum and
thalamus are known to assist the cortex in exercising this control. But it is not yet possible to construct a
detailed model of neurolinguistic operation that takes all speech-production variables into account." (David
Crystal, The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, 3rd ed. Cambridge University Press, 2010)
The scope of Psycholinguistics Studies
  The Scope of Psycholinguistic
Psycholinguistics basicly derives from two different study of sciences,there are psychology and
linguistics. Psychology deals with human mindswhile linguistics deals with the study of language. So, we
can conclude thatpsycholinguistics studies about the cognitive process when human use thelanguage to
communicate with others.Psycholinguistics tries to disperse the psychological processes that takeplace
when someone say the sentences at the time he listens to communicateand how language is acquired by
humans. Then theoretically the main goal isto find a psycholinguistic theory of language that is linguistically
andpsychologically acceptable to explain the nature of language and acquisitions.According to Clark and Clark
(1977), Psycholinguistics scope iscategorized into tree major scopes :a.
 
ComprehensionComprehending language involves a variety of capacities, skills,processes, knowledge, and
dispositions that are used to derivemeaning from spoken, written, and signed languageb.
 
ProductionIs how human produce the language. Further more it explain the mental process to produce the
language to be spoken. productionoccurs because there is a stimulus that come to our brain as amessage, there
the information will be processed to produce arespond.c.
 
Language Acquisition: It means how human learn to comprehend and produce language. Language acquisition was
acquired naturally since human completed by brain and speech organs. The acquisition occurs
gradually trough a process

Psycholinguistics is part of the field of cognitive science, and is the study of how individuals
comprehend, produce and acquire language. Psycholinguists are also interested in the social rules
involved in language use, and the brain mechanisms associated with language. Psycholinguistics focuses
on how people process language –how we comprehend and produce spoken and written language- and
how these skills are acquired. In order to understand these language processes, we need to understand
the major properties of language as well as the processing characteristics of the individuals who use it.
The scope of psycholinguistics
• Language process and linguistic knowledge
1. What knowledge of language is needed for us to use language?
• tacit knowledge –how to perform
• explicit knowledge –process or mechanisms
2. What cognitive processes are involved in the ordinary use of language?
 General psychological mechanisms
Both comprehension and production of language are performed within the constraints of our
information processing system. The system consists of structural components (memory systems) along
with a set of control processes that govern the flow of information within the system.
The information processing system.
Central issues in language processing : Serial vs Parallel processing, Top-Down vs Bottom-Up processing,
Automatic vs Controlled processes, Modularity vs Interactivity, Development of the processing systems.
Language comprehension
In this part, we will ewamine language comprehension at a number of levels of processing (for the
convenience of exposition) : levels of speech processing, Words processing (internal lexicon), syntactic
parsing and sentence understanding, connected discourse comprehension.
Perception of language : identification of isolated speech sounds and of continuous speech.
The internal lexicon : representation and organization of semantic knowledge (lexical access processes in
comprehension).
Comprehension of sentences : syntactic and semantic aPsycholinguisticsroaches to the construction of
interpretations.
Discourse comprehension : Comprehension of discourse, Memory for discourse, Schemata and
discourse processing.
Language production and conversational interaction
Language production can be viewed as consisting in four major stages : conceptualizing a thought to be
expressed, formulating a linguistic plan, articulating the plan, and monitoring one’s speech. These
various stages will be examined in this part.
Production of speech and language : Serial vs Parallel models of linguistic planning ; implementing
linguistic plans (articulating and self monitoring)
Conversational interaction : The structure of conversations, Conversational skills, conversational
settings.
Aims and Scope
Goals of the present Collection:
promoting development of the new prospective humanitarian science, psycholinguistics;
presenting schools of thought, concepts, theories, approaches, models, methods, postulates,
technologies and psycholinguistics-related methodologies;
popularizing results of modern psycholinguistic research by Ukrainian and foreign scientists;
exchanging new scientific psycholinguistic information to establish business and academic contacts with
other psycholinguists from all over the world;
promoting active implementation of psycholinguistic research in various fields of social and public life
for both people and government institutions;
exerting effort to create new international psycholinguistics projects;
involving young scientists into the study and implementation of practical aspects of psycholinguistics.
Problematics of the present Collection: production and perception of utterance and text, languaging,
language consciousness, language, metalinguistic, linguistic, language and communicative
competencies, formation and development of verbal consciousness, the conscious and the unconscious
in acquisition of languages, development of a language and communicative personality, and other
theoretical and applied problems important for the development of psycholinguistics.
The Collection presents results of analyzing research works in such branches of psycholinguistics as:
history of psycholinguistics, theory and methodology of psycholinguistics, psycholinguistics of speech
generation and perception, psycholinguistics of development, reflexive psycholinguistics,
psycholinguistic didactics, psycholinguistics in mastering languages (mother tongue, second, foreign),
psycholinguistic diagnostics, psycholinguistic correction, psycholinguistic therapy, ethnic
psycholinguistics, psychopoetics, patopsycholinguistics, psychosemantisc, psychosemiology,
psycholinguistic synergetics, psycholinguistics of speech influence, psycholinguistics of communication
and discourse, psycholinguistics of professional discourse, psycholinguistics of personality,
psycholinguistics of translation, psycholinguistics of bilingualism and multilingualism, psycholinguistics of
social communication; psycholinguistics in education and remedial pedagogics, pathopsychology,
aphasiology, engineering, military, space, political and judicial psychology, forensics, cybernetics,
advertising, journalism, mass media, problematics of artificial intelligence, machine translation, search
engines and computer technologies etc.
It discloses the interconnection between psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics, neurophysiology,
psychophysiology, psychology of communication, noospherology, psychophysics, parapsychology,
psychiatry, psychotherapy, psychography, psychoprosodics etc.
VIEW OF LANGUAGE

LINGUISTS
 Linguistic autonomy
 Language is NOT merely a manifestation of
general cognitive abilities: innate and unique
 Rules and representations are distinct subsystems
 Syntax is central
 Focus on competence rather than performance
 Assumes it is possible to study structure
separately from use
 Assumes sentence is basic unit of interest
 Often rationalist in approach
  "Narrower" scope of enquiry
PSYCHOLOGISTS
Linguistic minimalism / cognitivist
 Language viewed in the same framework as
other cognitive systems
 Rules are just manifestations of more general
processes
 Syntax has a less central role
 No sharp boundary between structure and use
 The sentence is NOT the basic unit of interest
necessarily
 Generally empirical in approach
 "Broader" scope of enquiry