The Definition and Scope of

Psycholinguistics

Week 1

Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti Mahripah11/10/2014

Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti Mahripah11/10/2014

Language as a Means of Communication

Language

Speaker Message Listener

Information

encodes decodes

Linguistics Psycholinguistics

processcomponents

Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti Mahripah11/10/2014

Linguistics

• Object: language

Psycholinguistics

• Object: speech process

The structural components of a

language

Language as a process

11/10/2014 Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti Mahripah

Origin of the termThe term psycholinguistics was coined in 1936 by Jacob Robert Kantor in his book An Objective Psychology of Grammar and started being used among his team at Indiana University,

But its use finally became frequent thanks to the 1946 article "Language and psycholinguistics: a review", by his student Nicholas Pronko,where it was used for the first time to talk about an interdisciplinary science "that could be coherent",

as well as in the title of Psycholinguistics: A Survey of Theory and Research Problems, a 1954 book by Charles E. Osgood and Thomas A. Sebeok.[

11/10/2014Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti

Mahripah

Definitions

•It investigates the interrelation of language and mind in

processing and producing utterances and in language

acquisition. (Hartley, 1982)

•It deals directly with the processes of encoding and

decoding as they relate states of message to states of

communicators (Osgood and Sebeok, 1983)

• It is the study of language acquisition and linguistic

behaviour, as well as the psychological mechanism

responsible for them (Langaker, 1973)

11/10/2014 Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti Mahripah

Definitions (Cont.)

•It is concerned in the broadest sense with relation between

messages and the characteristics of the human individuals

who select and interpret them (Diebold, 1973)

•It is the study of relation between our needs for expression

and communication and the means offered to us by a

language learned in one’s childhood and later. (Fraisse,

1973)

11/10/2014 Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti Mahripah

• It is the study of language behavior : How real (rather than ideal)people learn and use language to communicate ideas.

It asks questions such as:1. How is language produced, perceived, comprehended, andremembered?

2. How is it used for different communicative purposes?3. How is it acquired?4. How does it go wrong? How is it represented in the mind?

Definitions (Cont.)

11/10/2014Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti

Mahripah

Based on the definitions, here are some views on

psycholinguistics:

1. Psycholinguistics deals with language and mind

2. Psycholinguistics is directly related to the process of encoding and decoding of the

code (language)

3. Psycholinguistics is an approach

4. Psycholinguistics investigates language, language use, and language change

5. Psycholinguistics discusses processes which are going on in the speaker and hearer’s

minds

6. Psycholinguistics focuses in the discussion of language acquisition and linguistic

behaviour

11/10/2014Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti

Mahripah

Sub-disciplines within Psycholinguistics

• Theoretical psycholinguistics

language theories related to human mental processes in using language (phonological, diction, syntax, discourse and intonation arrangement)

• Developmental psycholinguistics

the process of language acquisition (both L1 & L2)

• Social psycholinguistics

the social aspects of language, that language is a string of thought and insights

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• Educational psycholinguistics the educational aspects in formal education: the role of language in the teaching of reading, language proficiency

• Neuro-psycholinguistics the relation between language and the brain: what happens to language input and how output is programmed and formed inside the brain

• Experimental psycholinguistics the act and effect of using language

• Applied psycholinguistics the application of all above subfields into other subjects

Cont.

11/10/2014Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti

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Scope

• how language is acquired and produced by users

• how brain works on language

• language acquisition

• the difference between children language acquisition and language learning

• linguistic interference

• language development

• the role of motivation in foreign language learning

11/10/2014Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti

Mahripah

The EndThank you