I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics

LANGUAGE (Chpt 9) Dr. Sara Sereno

I. Introduction to psycholinguistics

II. Basic units of language

III. Neuropsychology of language

IV. Language development / acquisition

V. Non-human language







I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics

A. What does it mean to study language?

B. Competence / Performance various examples of language use

C. Popular notions of language

D. Properties of language






I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics A. What does it mean to study language?

Linguistics = structure of languagephonetics, syntax, semantics, cross-language

comparisons, language universals

Psycholinguistics = processing of languageunderstanding the mechanisms of language behaviore.g., normal adult comprehension and production of language; neurolinguistics; language acquisition; language in non-humans

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics A. What does it mean to study language?

Socio-linguistics = social aspects of languageLinguistic factors, such as ...

voice pitch, pronunciation (dialect),word choice, intonation

... influence our judgements about the speaker’s:age, gender, geographical identity,

socio-economic class, intelligence, personality, mood

Examples: R’s in New York (Labov, 1966) Disney






I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics B. Competence / Performance

Competence = what one knowsImplicit knowledge - knowing what’s “right”Explicit knowledge - explain in terms of formal rules

Performance = what one does; how knowledge is used- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Various examples of language use:

(1) pa-ba-sa (4) tag questions(2) wugs (5) “Can you pass the salt?”(3) wordness (6) grammaticality judgements









WUG

WUCK

/wugz/

/wuks/





Wordness: For each row of 3 possible new words, which one will probably never make it : (

blick splunge rlight

sbarm wumple turl

mancer nserht crelurious

inther iwhucr neen

shace fring ngout





Tag Question = element attached at end of utterance;not a true question nor a full declarative statement; a way of asking for confirmation

That was a horrible movie, wasn’t it?

She’s been swimming, ______________?Jeremy wants to go dancing, ______________?You haven’t had any sleep, ______________?The man who was smoking died, ______________?Those friends of Maria’s that we don’t

particularly like didn’t know, ______________?

hasn’t shedoesn’t hehave youdidn’t he

did they

Tag Question formation rules...But first, background information about

the (dreaded) VERB AUXILIARY Declarative Verb Aux.Jo has eaten well. HAVEJo was acting bad. BEJo ran yesterday. DO

GRAMMATICAL TRANSFORMATION

Question Negation Verb Aux. Has Jo eaten well? Jo hasn’t eaten well. HAVE Was Jo acting bad? Jo wasn’t acting bad. BE Did Jo run yesterday? Jo didn’t run yesterday. DO

Tag question formation rules:1. Copy the auxiliary of the main verb to the

right of the sentence.

2. Make it negative if the original is positive or positive if the original is negative.

3. Add the pronoun that corresponds to thesubject in person, number, and gender.

Bob and Betty were laughing loudly, _____________?That famous surgeon quit, _____________?She’s not leaving already, _____________?

weren’t theydidn’t sheis she





Conversational inference (cooperation)

there are rules that govern how languageoperates in a wider social context

maxim of relevance - fill in the blanks

“Can you pass the salt?”




(1) pa-ba-sa (4) tag questions(2) wugs (5) “Can you pass the salt?”(3) wordness (6) grammaticality

judgements

Please can you pass the salt?

Can please you pass the salt?

Can you please pass the salt?

Can you pass please the salt?

Can you pass the please salt?

Can you pass the salt please?

Can you pass the salt? + please

John is difficult to love.

It is difficult to love John.

John is anxious to go.

It is anxious to go John.

What he did was climb a tree.

What he thought was want a sports car.

What are you drinking and go home?

Mary was near the stream, was it?

Grammaticality Judgements

*

*

*

*






I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics C. Popular (but incorrect) notions of language

Prescriptive linguisticsLanguage change is corruptionSome languages are more advanced than others“Received pronunciation” is better than dialects“Do’s” and “don’ts” of language use

Language acquisitionChildren learn language by imitation






I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics D. Properties of language

Human Language = flexible, symbol-based and rule-based mode of communication that permits conveyance of any kind of information. Its properties include:

Creative – a limitless # of thoughts can be expressedin a limitless # of ways.

Structured – sounds are combined into words, and wordsinto sentences according to rules (i.e., grammar).

hierarchical

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics D. Properties of language

Meaningful – ideas are conveyed by individual wordsand how they are organised into sentences.

Referential – it refers to and describes things and eventsin the world.

Interpersonal / Communicative – it has a social function.

Ex: The cat ate the dog.The dog ate the cat.












V. Non-human language bonobo chimps & Kanzi video







II. Basic Units of Language

A. ~5,000 languagesphonemes morphemes sentences conversations (sounds) & words

B. Phonemes = elementary sounds of speech• phonemes are NOT letters

to, too, two, through, threw, shoe, clue, view

• vowel & consonant phonemes

• combining phonemes is rule-governed

• 11-144 phonemes in any given languageEnglish has ~ 40; Hawaiian has ~16

II. Basic Units of LanguageC. Morphemes = smallest meaningful unit of lang.

• can be a word, word stem, or affix (prefix, suffix)word: help, loveword stem: spir, ceive, duceprefix/suffix: re-, dis-, un- / -less, -ful, -er

• derivational & inflectional morphemesderivational – change the grammatical class

V + -able = Adj (adorable, believable)V + -er = N (singer, runner)

inflectional – grammatical markersV + -ed = past tense (walked)N + -s = plural (cows)

“free” {

“bound”{

II. Basic Units of LanguageC. Words

• Content vs. function wordsContent words = carry the main meaning

nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbsFunction words = grammatical words

articles (a, the, this), conjunctions (and,but), prepositions (in, above)

Psychological reality of the content-functionword distinction in aphasia selective impairment of content (Wernicke’s) orfunction words (Broca’s aphasia)

• Stroop (1935)

REDBLUE

BLACK

GREEN

RED

RED

GREENBLACK

BLUE

BLUE

RED

BLACK

BLUE

BLACK

BLUE

GREEN

BLUEGREEN

RED

GREEN

NAME THE COLOUR OF THE INK

Aoccdrnig to rscheearh at an Elingsh uinervtisy,it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrodare, the olny iprmoetnat tihng is taht the frist andlsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be atoatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm.Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slefbut the wrod as a wlohe.

II. Basic Units of LanguageC. Words (con’t)

• Ambiguity1 word form, but 2 (or more) word meanings

Ex: bank (N-N, “money” vs. “river”) watch (N-V, “clock” vs. “look”) bass (N-N, “guitar” vs. “fish”)

2 word forms, but 1 pronunciationEx: sail/sale, right/write

Generally unaware of ambiguity...even though it is quite pervasiveeven though it affects behaviour (RT, etc)

homographs

homophones

II. Basic Units of LanguageD. Sentences

• Syntax = the rule-governed system for groupingwords together into phrases and sentences

• Sentences introduce a concept that they are about,the subject (or noun phrase), and then proposesomething about that concept, the predicate(or verb phrase).

Ex: “The boy hit the ball.”

doer act done-to

subject predicate

II. Basic Units of LanguageD. Sentences (con’t)• Same deep structure, different surface structure

“The boy hit the ball.” (active)“The ball was hit by the boy.” (passive)

• Same surface structure, different deep structure [The French bottle]NP [smells.]VP

[The French]NP [bottle smells.]VP

THEY are boring. VISITING THEM is boring.

Cf. ambig. figures in perception: 1 form, 2 interpretations

“The French bottle smells.”

“Visiting relatives can be boring.”

Necker cube

New obesity study looks for larger test groupReagan wins on budget, but more lies aheadMan struck by lightening faces battery chargeEnraged Cow Injures Farmer with AxeMilk Drinkers Are Turning to PowderLocal High School Dropouts Cut in HalfBritish Left Waffles on FalklandsDealers Will Hear Car Talk at NoonMiners Refuse to Work after DeathBeating Witness Provides NamesSquad Helps Dog Bite VictimKids Make Nutritious Snacks

Headlines

Stolen Painting Found by TreeProstitutes Appeal to PopeRed Tape Holds up BridgeDeer Kill 17,000Teenage Prostitution Problem is MountingChild Stool Great for Use in GardenShouting Match Ends Teacher’s HearingMan Robs then Kills HimselfLung Cancer in Women MushroomsMondale’s Offensive Looks Hard to BeatTuna Biting off Washington CoastChinese Apeman Dated

Headlines

Q: What’s the difference between a Scotsman and a rolling stone?

A: A Rolling Stone says “Hey you get off of my cloud!” and a Scotsman says “Hey McLeod get off of my ewe!”

II. Basic Units of LanguageD. Sentences (con’t)

• Syntactic ambiguities

“She hit the boy with the big stick.”

“She hit the boy with the runny nose.”

Interpretation depends on structural preferences(certain constructions used more often,

favoured),as well as the prior discourse context.







Broca’s aphasia video

III. Neuropsychology of Language

• Language localised to the left hemisphere of brain

• Aphasia = disorder of language from injury tolanguage areas

Broca’s aphasia problems in production (“telegraphic” speech) difficulty w/ function words syntactic deficit

Wernicke’s aphasia fluent but meaningless speech (“empty” words) difficulty w/ content words semantic deficit

neologisms & logorrhea







IV. Language Development / Acquisition

A. Theoretical points of view“Nature” - language is innate; biological predisposition“Nurture” - lang. learned via environmental stimulation

Points of debate:• imitation & correction?• whole-object constraint• over-regularisation (‘goed’, ‘tooths’)• motherese• pidgin creole

Conclusion: infants are immediately sensitive to language, but need to interact to learn

“child-directed speech”


B. Stages of language PRODUCTION: 0-12 months

Age (mo) Stage Behaviour

0-3 vegetative sounds burp, cough, suck swallow, cry

3-5 cooing & laughing sounds with intonation

5-12 babbling consonant-vowel

sounds6-9 reduplicated ‘ba-ba-ba-ba’9-12 variegated ‘bi-du-ba’


C. Stages of language PERCEPTION: 0-12 months

Age Discrimination

45 min round lips vs. tongue protrusion imitation

1 week mother’s voice vs. other’s voicesown language vs. foreign language

2-4 mo all possible phoneme distinctions [video]

6-8 mo categorise phonemes across diff. voices [video]lose non-native distinctions


C. Stages of language PERCEPTION: 0-12 months

Age Discrimination

45 min round lips vs. tongue protrusion imitation

1 week mother’s voice vs. other’s voicesown language vs. foreign language

2-4 mo all possible phoneme distinctions [video]

6-8 mo categorise phonemes across diff. voices [video]lose non-native distinctions

habituation paradigm


D. Stages of language PRODUCTION: 1-5 years

Age (yr) Stage Behaviour1 holophrase ‘More’ ‘Dada’ ‘Gone’

(1-word stage) ‘Bye-bye’1.5 telegraphic ‘Allgone milk’ ‘She

cold’ (2-word stage) ‘Shut door’

2-4 short sentences negation & question

formation4-5 more complex forms

over-regularisationwent goed went

Dada play?Play Dada?Can Dada play?

No/Not Dada playDada no/not playDada don’t play







V. Non-human Language

• Teaching language to chimpanzees:Hayes (1950s) raise chimp as if humanGardner (1960s) sign language with WashoeTerrace (1970s) more systematic approachmore recently work with bonobo chimps

• Characteristics of human language lacking in animals:syntax, creativity, displacement, prevarication

• Conclusion:Some animals learn words, but little evidence

they can create or understand syntactic structures.

V. Non-human Language

• Teaching language to chimpanzees:Hayes (1950s) raise chimp as if humanGardner (1960s) sign language with WashoeTerrace (1970s) more systematic approachmore recently work with bonobo chimps

• Characteristics of human language lacking in animals:syntax, creativity, displacement, prevarication

• Conclusion:Some animals learn words, but little evidence

they can create or understand syntactic structures.

Language Acts Hierarchy of language unitsProduction phonemes / graphemes

(speaking, writing, morphemes signing) words

Comprehension phrase, clause, sentence(listening, “reading”) syntax (grammar)

semantics (meaning)Acquisition discourse (interpretation)

1st or 2nd language communication (social)- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -Dysfunction (deficits)

aphasia, dyslexia, Az

] learning not to respond

] gradual

] learning not to respond

Emotion words

Valence

Arousal

+ ve

– ve

Lo Hi

peace love

bored fire

Neutral controls: hotel, farm

Documents

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics