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The document discusses psycholinguistics and summarizes key aspects. Psycholinguistics focuses on the psychological and neurological processes involved in language acquisition, production, and comprehension. It combines methods from psychology and linguistics. The four main domains of psycholinguistics discussed are language acquisition, production of language, comprehension of language, and language loss. Language acquisition theories summarized include behaviorist, mentalist, cognitive, and constructivist approaches. The stages of language production discussed are conceptualization, formulation, articulation, and self-monitoring.

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Noor Ulain
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223 views

Assignment of Psycholinguistics by

The document discusses psycholinguistics and summarizes key aspects. Psycholinguistics focuses on the psychological and neurological processes involved in language acquisition, production, and comprehension. It combines methods from psychology and linguistics. The four main domains of psycholinguistics discussed are language acquisition, production of language, comprehension of language, and language loss. Language acquisition theories summarized include behaviorist, mentalist, cognitive, and constructivist approaches. The stages of language production discussed are conceptualization, formulation, articulation, and self-monitoring.

Uploaded by

Noor Ulain
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Assignment of Psycholinguistics

By

Amna javaid (133)


Ayesha naeem ( 128)
Sara tariq ( 123 )
Noor-un-nisa (135)
Noor-ul-ain (136)
Introduction of psycholinguistic :

Psycholinguistics is a branch of cognitive science that focuses specifically on the


psychological and neurobiological processes involved in the acquisition,
production, and comprehension of human language.Psycholinguistics
combines methods and theories from psychology and linguistics. It
attempts to evaluate the psychological reality and underpinnings of
linguistic rules and processes. It also seeks to link word and sentence
processing to the deeper expressive processes of message construction and
interpretation.

Definition by different linguists:


Loreto Todd
He says that psycholinguistics deal with the relationship between language
and the mind focusing mainly on how language is learnt , stored and occasionally
lost.
Thomas Sconel
He says that the use of language and speech as a window to the nature and
structure of the human mind is called psycholinguistics.

Domain of Psycholinguistics :
Like all disciplines psycholinguistics has evolved into a conglomeration of subfields.
There are four subfield in psycholinguistics :
1: Language Acquisition
2: Production of Language
3: Comprehension of Language
4: Dissolution of Language loss

1 :- LANGUAGE ACQUISITION

Language acquisition is the process by which humans acquire the capacity to


perceive and comprehend language as well as to produce and use words and
sentences to communicate. Language acquisition involves structures, rules and
representation.
The process of speech and language development in infants and children is
complex and interrelated. For normal communication to develop, there must be
an integration of anatomy and physiology of the speech systems, neurological
development, and interactions that encourage infants and children for
communication attempts. Language development includes both receptive and
expressive language. There are four theories that explain most of speech and
language development:
(i) The Behaviorist
(ii) The Mentalist
(iii) Cognitive theory
(iv) The Constructivists
(v) Cognitive Domain
(vi) Multiple Intelligence Theory (MI theory)

(i) THE BEHAVIORIST


Behaviorists believe that language behaviors are learned by imitation,
reinforcement, and copying adult language behaviors. They consider language to
be determined not by experimentation or self-discovery, but by selective
reinforcements from speech and language models, usually parents or other family
members. Behaviorists focus on external forces that shape a child's language and
see the child as a reactor to these forces. B.F. Skinner is considered to be the
father of modern behavioral theory. His theory can be applied to many aspects of
human learning including speech and language
B.F. Skinner’s experiment:
Skinner presented his concept of Operant Conditioning behavior.Operant
conditioning is a method of changing behavior so that a desired behavior is
reinforced immediately after it occurs. In this regard, Skinner conducted an
experiment on rats. He put the rat in a box containing a bar. When unconsciously
the rat pushed the bar, he received a pallet of food as reinforcement. He made the
process gradually complex by including blinking-light and reinforcement on
double pushing. The theory centers around the idea that children are conditioned
by their environment and the reinforcement of their communication. Chomsky
rejects the behaviorist theory of skinner and purposed his own theory that is
known as the mentalist theory

(ii) THE MENTALISTS


The mentalist learning theory emphasizes the role of the mind in language
acquisition by arguing that humans are born with an innate and biological
capacity to learn languages. This theory was spearheaded by Noam Chomsky, and
arose in response to B. F. Skinner's radical behaviorism. Chomsky stressed active
contribution of the child and minimized the importance of imitation and
reinforcement.
Child's knowledge of their mother tongue is derived from a Universal Grammar
(UG) which specifies the essential form that any natural language can take.
Universal Grammar exists as a set of innate linguistic principles common to all
possible human languages. Chomsky called this biological ability as the language
acquisition device (LAD)’Mentalist Theory of language acquisition emphasizes
the learner’s innate mental capability to learn language.

(iii) COGNITIVE PROCESS THEORY :

Piaget was another great psychologist , who first 5 times proposed a theory of
cognitive development. Piaget’s theory states that children construct their
understanding of the world and go through four stages of cognitive development.
The sensorimotor stage, in which infants construct an understanding of the world
by coordinating sensory experiences. The preoperational stage, children begin
connecting sensory information with physical action and represent the world
with images and drawings. The concrete operational stage, in which children can
perform operations that involve objects and can reason logically as long as
reasoning can be applied to specific examples.

(iv) The CONSTRUCTIVIST :


Constructivism is recognized as a unique learning theory in itself . It however
may be associated with cognitive psychology ,because as a theory or learning it
focuses on a learner's ability to mentally construct meaning of his own
environment and to create his own learning
J.Brunet ,who presented the constructivist theory in a learning context,described
that the learner selects and transforms information. Cognitive structure provides
meaning and organization to the experiences and allows the individual to go
beyond the information given.

(v) COGNITIVE DOMAIN


Benjamin bloom made a valuable contribution to the classification of educational
objectives through his taxonomy that is known as bloom's taxonomy. He
emphasized the importance of different types of learning . Hr divide learning into
three major domains:
mental skills, Growth in feeling or emotional areas, Manual or physical skills.
The cognitive domain involves knowledge and the development of intellectual
skills. This includes recall of specific facts and concepts that are related to mental
abilities and skills.

(vi) MI THEORY :
Multiple intelligences is a theory first posited by Harvard developmental
psychologist Howard Garder in 1983 that suggests human intelligence can be
differentiated into eight modalities:visual-spatial,verbal-linguistics, musical-
rhythmic,logical-mathematical, interpersonal, interpersonal, naturalistic and
bodily kinesthetic. Multiple intelligences refers to a theory describing the
different ways students learn and acquire information .These multiple
intelligences range from the use of words, numbers, pictures, music, to the
importance of social interaction, introspection, physical movement and being
in tune with nature.The idea behind the theory of multiple intelligences people
learn in a variety of different ways.

Production of speech:-

Speech production is an important part of the way we communicate. We indicate


intonation through stress and pitch while communicating our thoughts, ideas,
requests, or demands, and while maintaining grammatically correct sentences.

1: Conceptualization:-
The process of Conceptualization involves determining what to say.
Speakers construct a preverbal message through conceiving an intention and
selecting relevant information from memory or the environment in order to
prepare for the construction of an utterance.
An American psycholinguistic David Mc Neil's investigate how speech is
first conceptualized in the human mind. His theory primitive linguistic concepts
are formed as two concurrent and parallel modes of thought. They are syntactic
thinking and imagistic thinking.
⚪ Syntactic thinking:-
Syntactic thinking generates the sequence of words which we
typically think of when we talk. It is segmented and linear, and creates the string
of syllables, words, phrases and sentences that together make up speech .
⚪ Imagistic thinking:-
Imagistic thinking creates a more holistics and visual mode of
communication. It is global and tends to develop the gestures which we naturally
use to punctuate and illustrate our conservations.
2: Formulation:-
Formulation is the process of arranging what we want to say after we
have a concept in the mind. We formulate the thought into a linguistic plan.
The identification of the formulation process can be seen from slips of
tongue like the mistake or 'spoonerisms (named after William spooner) that
someone have in saying or writing something.
▶️Formulation is the eventual output of speech Conceptualization.
▶️Gestures play a functional role in formulation of speech.
▶ Long term memory resources are thought to be necessary for
Conceptualization and verbal working memory resources are
thought to be necessary for formulation.
3: Articulation:-
Articulation is the third and very important stage of speech production,
that is, the physical stage of sound speech.
Articulation is the ability to physically move the tongue, lips, teeth and jaw
to produce sequences of speech sounds, which make up words and sentences .
4: Self Monitoring
From time to time,we spontaneously interrupt our speech and correct ourselves.
These corrections are referred to as self repairs. According to Levelt self repairs
have a characteristic structure that consists of three parts: first we interrupt
ourselves after we have detected an error in our speech. Second we usually utter
one of various editing expressions. These include terms such as uh, sorry. Instant
repairs consist of a speaker's retracing back to a single troublesome word which is
then replaced with the correct word

LANGUAGE COMPREHENSION
Language comprehension is one of the most automatic tasks that humans
perform. Yet it is also one of the most complex, requiring the simultaneous
integration of many different types of information, such as knowledge about
letters and their sounds,spelling,grammar,word meanings and general world
knowledge. In addition ,general cognitive abilities such as attention monitoring,
inferencing and memory retrieval are used in order to organize this information
into a single meaningful representation. A major part of language comprehension
is integrating new information with what is already known.
DISSOLUTION OF LANGUAGE LOSE
Dissolution is when speakers of a language present a deficit in their language
production or are no longer in use. Language dissolution is the result of
operations on the brain. Individual language can deviate significantly from social
norms e.g. stuttering and autism. Stuttering is one of the most common
articulation problems encountered by speech pathologists.

CONCLUSION
Thus there are four aspects which have to be covered in psycholinguistics :
language acquisition, production of speech, comprehension of speech and
language loss. The following figure can best illustrate psycholinguistics in the
light of john lyon's definition who says psycholinguistics is associated with
neurolinguistics towards one side and with sociolinguistics towards another

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