CHAPTER I
WHAT IS PSYCHOLINGUISTICS?
The Domain of Psycholinguistic Inquiry
Linguistics is the discipline that describes the structure of language, including its grammar,
sound system, and vocabulary. The field of psycholinguistics, or the psychology of language,
is concerned with discovering the psychological processes by which humans acquire and use
language. Conventionally, psycholinguistics addresses three major concerns (Clark & Clark,
1977; Tanenhaus, 1989):
1.
Comprehension: How people understand spoken and written language. This is a broad
area of investigation that involves scrutiny of the comprehension process at many
levels, including investigation of how speech signals are interpreted by listeners
(speech perception), how the meanings of words are determined (lexical access), how
the grammatical structure of sentences is analyzed to obtain larger units of meaning
(sentence processing), and how longer conversations or texts are appropriately
formulated and evaluated (discourse). Concerns specifically relevant to how written
language is processed are also part of this domain.
2.
Speech production: How people produce language. The chapters that follow suggest
that it is somewhat easier to study comprehension than production; we can use
controlled language stimuli and then analyze patterns of accuracy and error, response
time, and other behaviors to arrive at an estimate of how listeners process language.
However, it is more difficult to gain insight into how concepts are put into linguistic
form; the process is largely hidden from observation, and speakers’ verbal
expressions, even in response to rather controlled eliciting stimuli, vary considerably.
We learn most about the probable nature of the speech production process from
speakers’ mistakes (speech errors or false starts) and from’ breaks in the ongoing
rhythm of connected speech (hesitation and pausal phenomena, or speech
disfluencies).
3.
Acquisition: How people learn language. The major focus in this domain has been on
how children acquire a first language (developmental psycholinguistics)
What is a language?
Human language is characterized by its hierarchical structure. By this we mean that the
message is divisible into smaller units of analysis. The child’s utterance is a sentence that
contains smaller discrete elements such as words and sounds, and these can be recombined to
make other utterances (for example, “I won’t eat tofu. I hate it.”). All human languages are
characterized by such structural properties. Conversely, it is difficult to analyze the
“substructure” of infant or animal cries. Although some substructure may appear to exist
in
the bee’s dance and the bird’s replication of human speech, such messages lack the infinite
creativity of human language. Competent language users are able to produce and understand
a virtually unlimited number of well-formed sentences in their language.
And all human languages express the full range of speakers’ experiences, even imaginary
ones. Such is not the case (as far as we can tell) with animal languages. The parakeet is not
free to discuss the weather with you, nor can he even paraphrase his message and say, “I’m a
pretty bird,” or “You’re not a bird.” Although the bee is adept at directing its fellow bees to
nectar, it is incapable of warning them that an irate homeowner is coming after them with a
can of insecticide. It may (or may not) possess such knowledge, but it lacks a sufficiently rich
system of symbols and rules for their combination to allow transmission of a large variety of
concepts.
The structural properties of any language include rules for using it properly; thus language is
a rule-governed system of behavior. There is no right or wrong way to bark or cry (though
some versions may be more annoying than others). Conversely, the rules of English specify
that the child in our example may not say, "Tofu I like not, eat and it won’t I.” English, like
other languages, has conventions for knowing what words must be included and for ordering
these words in sentences.
Distinguishing Between Language and Speech
Although some authors say that language is sound (Dinneen, 1967) or that the medium of
language is sound (Bolinger & Sears, 1981), this is not necessarily true. Most of the world’s
languages are spoken or oral, and for most individuals speaking precedes and is of greater
importance than reading or writing. However, some human languages are signed or gestural.
These languages, of which American Sign Language (ASL) is one example, have the same
basic linguistic features found in oral human languages. Thus, like spoken languages, they are
rule-governed, arbitrary systems of communication with hierarchical substructuring that are
capable of infinite creativity and spontaneously acquired by infants exposed to them.
Levels of Language Analysis
A psycholinguist who wishes to understand how a sentence such as How do people
communicate with one another? is processed must first acknowledge that understanding it
depends on several smaller tasks:
•
The sounds of the message must be isolated and recognized.
•
The words must be identified and associated with their meanings.
•
The gramma’icalstructure of the message must be analyzed sufficiently to de
termine the roles played by each word.
•
The resulting interpretation of the message must be evaluated in light of past
experience and the current context. Only then can the utterance be considered “understood.”
Linguists, philosophers, and psychologists have long appreciated that language is a complex
system that can be considered at multiple levels of analysis. Every human language may be
analyzed in terms of its phonology (sound system), morphology (rules for word formation),
lexicon (vocabulary), syntax (rules for combining words into grammatically acceptable
sequences), semantics (conventions for deriving the meanings of words and sentences), and
pragmatics (rules for appropriate social use and interpretation of language in context).
Linguists strive to develop descriptions of a language that capture its characteristics at each of
these levels. Psycholinguists, in turn, seek to determine whether these levels or units of
analysis are represented in the actual process of producing or understanding various forms of
language. Some call this endeavor the search for the psychological reality of linguistic
descriptions.
We may more readily appreciate the complex interaction of these systems by considering
efforts to get by in a language we do not know. Anyone who has attempted to function in a
foreign culture using only an English—foreign language dictionary knows the frustrating
limitations of a list of words and their meanings. Below we will examine some of the many
specific abilities that underlie competent use of language. As we do, it may become evident
that, although using and understanding language is a relatively quick and easy task for most
of us, many aspects of our linguistic knowledge are subconscious in nature.
Phonology
The words of a language are divisible into sound sequences, and part of language knowledge
is an understanding of the particular sounds used in a language, as well as the rules for their
combination. The study of how the sounds of a language are physically enunciated is known
as articulatoiy phonetics and will be explored in Chapter 3. A great number of speech sounds
are available to the world’s languages.
The distinctive sounds used in a language are its phonemes. Phonemes are contrastive;
changing from one to another within a word produces either a change in meaning or a
nonword. Most of us are familiar with the experience of trying to learn a second language
whose phonemic inventory (sounds used in the language) differs from our own. Because we
can find minimal pairs such as pit and bit, which differ only in respect to/pt and /b/and have
different meanings, we know that/pt and /b/ are different phonemes. But consider the English
words pot and spot. More force is used when we say pot, and the resulting puff of air is called
aspiration. Linguists write the sound in this word as [p]. The /p/ of spot is produced without
aspiration—it is unaspirated. Yet this sound contrast cannot be used to mark a difference in
meaning in English, where the two sounds are separate allophones (variants of the same
phoneme) rather than separate phonemes.
Sequences of Sounds: Phonotactics: it deals with how sounds is arranged to join syllable and
word.
The phonological system of a language also includes rules for the interpretation of prosody or
intonation and stress patterns.
The Lexicon and Semantics
Semantic is the study of word meaning and the ways in which words are related to one
another in our mental lexicon. It also includes the study of sentential meaning in
contemporary linguistics.
Morphology: The study of Word Formation
The study of how word is formed. There are two morphemes; a) free morpheme and b) bound
morpheme.
Syntax: Combining Words to Form Sentences.
Pragmatics and Discourse
Pragmatics determines our choice of wording and our interpretation of language in different
situations.
Much of our language use involves discourse, usually defined as verbal or written
interactions longer than single utterances. Beyond the level of understanding single words or
sentences, we more typically need to evaluate what we hear or read within a particular
context and on the basis of our prior knowledge—we are thus able to make inferences. The
situational setting or context of spoken messages is often crucial to their successful
interpretation. “Success,” in this sense, is taken as the hearer’s full appreciation of the
speaker’s intent.
Metalinguistic Capacity:
The Ability to Analyze Our Own Language
Metalinguistic means, literally, “language about language.” It is often difficult to ex~plain
our knowledge about language. Our talents for speaking well and understanding competently
are aspects of our linguistic knowledge, whereas our ability to reflect upon our language—
our understanding of how we do these things—represents an aspect of our metalinguistic
knowledge. In this book we ask metalinguistic questions such as
“How do I understand the meaning of word?”
“How do I find words when I want to talk about things?”
“Are some words easier or harder for people to understand?”
THE ACQUISITION OF LANGUAGE BY CHILDREN
The rapidity with which children acquire language has fascinated scholars and parents for
thousands of years. Although questions about the nature of child language learning and the
methods of study used have varied, they embrace many recurring themes. The nature—
nurture controversy maintains a robust presence among child language researchers. Some
(often called nativists) side with nature and maintain that language is basically innate, that
children are born with a special, unique human talent that can extrapolate the grammar of a
language without overt instruction or correction. Others stress the role of nurture and claim
that adults teach language to children by using special kinds of simplified language with them
and providing them with feedback when they have used the language well or poorly. An
important component of Chomsky’s early writings (1957, 1965) was its emphasis on the role
of linguistic theory and the limits of behaviorist psychology in explaining the acquisition of
language by children.