Psychology and Language

-Applied Linguistics-
Psychology and Language

Jihan Nawal Aini – 180403048
Novita Dyah Pitaloka - 180403004
Introduction :
Themes of Psycholinguistics
 Introduction
 The Scope of Psycholinguistics
 Language Processes and Linguistic Knowledge
 Four Language Examples
 The Historical Context
 Early Psycholinguistics
 Behaviorism and Verbal Behavior
 Later Psycholinguistics
 Current Directions
Introduction
 The study of how individuals comprehend, produce, and
acquire language
 Part of cognitive science
 Stress the knowledge of language and the cognitive
processes
 Interested in social rules involved in language use and the
brain mechanism associated with language.
The Scope of Psycholinguistics
 Psycholinguistics is part of the emerging field of study

called cognitive science.
 Cognitive scientists => problem solving, memory,
imagery, and language.
 Psycholinguistics Psychology
Linguistics
Language Processes and Linguistic Knowledge
 What knowledge of language is needed for us to use
language?
 Tacit Knowledge, the knowledge of how to perform
various acts
 Explicit Knowledge, the knowledge of the processes or
mechanisms used in these acts
Four broad areas of language knowledge
1. Semantics 3. Phonology
2. Syntax 4. Pragmatics
Language Processes and Linguistic Knowledge
 What cognitive processes are involved in the ordinary use
of language?
‘‘ordinary use of language,’’ => understanding a lecture,
reading a book, writing a letter, and holding a
conversation.
‘‘cognitive processes,’’ => perception, memory, and
thinking.
 cognitive processing is going on during those activities.
Four Language Examples
1. Garden Path Sentence

The novice accepted the deal before he had a chance to
check his finances, which put him in a state of conflict when
he realized he had a straight flush. (Adapted from Foss &
Jenkins, 1973)
 two different meanings of the word deal (business
transaction and card games)
 in the course of comprehending language we are making
decisions => we are doing mental work.
2. Indirect Request
Can you open the door?
 the speaker is asking us to open the door in an indirect
manner.
 we have learned certain rules about the use of language in
social settings, including rules of politeness.
3. Direct Command
Open the door!
 it is part of our pragmatic knowledge of our language.
 psychologist, who is principally interested in the behavior
of individuals. But when studying individuals, it is
necessary to recognize the social dimension of language.
4. Wernicke’s aphasia
Before I was in the one here, I was over in the other
one. My sister had the department in the other one.
(Geschwind, 1972, p. 78)
 the patient’s semantic knowledge has been impaired by the
brain damage.
The Historical Context
 Blumenthal (1987) :
interdisciplinary field of psycholinguistics flourished
twice: around the turn of the last century, principally in
Europe, and in the middle of the 20th century, principally
in the United States.
 In the early decades of the 20th century :
linguists turned to psychologists
psychologists turned to linguists
Early Psycholinguistics
 Psychology was defined as the science of mental life in
the early 1900s.
 Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), it was possible to
investigate mental events such as sensations, feelings, and
images by using rigorous procedures.
 Wundt’s contributions : developing a theory of language
production.
Behaviorism and Verbal Behavior
 By the 1920s, behaviorism took over the mainstream of
experimental psychology.
 Leonard Bloomfield, his more widely known 1933 text
took a more behaviorist view.
 In conclusion, psychology and linguistics ‘‘divorced’’ for a
period of several decades.
Later Psycholinguistics
 By the early 1950s, psychologists and linguists became interested
in talking to one another.
 Tanenhaus (1988) describes the events :
1. In 1951, conference between psychologists and linguists.
2. In 1953, conference included anthropologists and
communications engineers as well as psychologists and
linguists. Here, the term psycholinguistics first came into use.
3. in the late 1950s, linguist Noam Chomsky argued that the
behaviorists’ accounts of language were inadequate.
Current Directions
 Psycholinguistics has matured to the point that we are
beginning to see applications of psycholinguistic
principles that are useful to society.
 Some progress in applying psycholinguistic:
research to topics such as reading ( Just & Carpenter,
1987), bilingualism (Bialystok, 2001), and language
disorders (Tartter, 1998).

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-Applied Linguistics-

Psychology and Language

 Psycholinguistics is part of the emerging field of study

1. Garden Path Sentence

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