What is Psycholinguistics?

LING 201

Psycholinguistics
Janice Fon The Ohio State University

Neurolinguistics: the study of the neural and electrochemical bases of language development and use Psycholinguistics: the study of the acquisition, storage, comprehension, and production of language

Two Questions
How is language actually stored in and processed by the brain? How is language acquired?

Physical Features of the Brain I

Hemisphere: the two nearly symmetrical halves of the brain
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left: dominant in analytic reasoning, temporal ordering, arithmetic, and language processing right: processing music, perceiving nonlinguistic sounds, visual and spatial skills and pattern recognition

Physical Features of the Brain II

Left hemisphere
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Physical Features of the Brain III

Lateralization: specialization of the brain hemispheres for different cognitive functions; lateralization is accomplished through development Corpus callosum: bundle of nerve fibers connecting the two hemispheres of the brain for the purpose of exchanging information between the two halves
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Right hemisphere
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mathematical thinking analytical skills temporal order judgments associative thoughts

pattern matching recognizing peoples faces recognition and memories of melodies identifying environmental sounds

Corpus Callosum

Physical Features of the Brain IV

Contralateralization: property of the brain such that one side of the body is controlled by the opposite hemisphere of the brain
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dichotic listening test:

REA: verbal stimuli LEA: nonverbal stimuli

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split brain patients hemispherectomies patterns of aphasia electric stimulation

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Dichotic Listening

Physical Features of the Brain V

Cortex: outer surface of the brain responsible for many of the cognitive abilities or functions of the brain
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auditory cortex visual cortex motor cortex

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Physical Features of the Brain VI

Language centers: parts of the cortex used only for the production and comprehension of language
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Physical Features of the Brain VII

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Brocas area Wernickes area angular gyrus

Brocas area location: motor cortex function: organizes the articulatory patterns of language and directing the motor cortex when talking; control the use of inflectional and functional morphemes

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Brain

Physical Features of the Brain VIII

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Wernickes area location: auditory cortex function: comprehension of words and selection of words when producing sentences; match the spoken form of a word with the object it describes; crucial to the human capacity to read and write

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Physical Features of the Brain IX

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Flow of Linguistic Information

To speak:
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arcuate fasciculus: bundles of nerve fibers connecting Brocas and Wernickes angular gyrus location: between Wernickes and visual cortex function: converts visual stimuli into auditory stimuli and vice versa

Wernickes Brocas eyes visual cortex angular gyrus Wernickes

To read:
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How Brain Speaks

Language Disorders I
Aphasia: inability to perceive, process, or produce language because of physical damage to the (mainly left) brain
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Brocas aphasia Wernickes aphasia conduction aphasia alexia agraphia

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Language Disorders II
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Language Disorders III

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Brocas aphasia: inability to plan the motor sequences used in speech or sign; telegraphic speech (expressive disorders) Wernickes aphasia: characterized by being apparently grammatical but lacking in meaning; inability to understand others speech (cannot follow instructions); circumlocutions often used; jumbled word order (receptive disorders)
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conduction aphasia: damage to the arcuate fasciculus; shows sign of Wernickes aphasia but is able to understand speech of others; cannot repeat alexia: damage to the angular gyrus caused by an accident, stroke, or lesion; inability to read and comprehend written words agraphia: damage to angular gyrus; inability to write words
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The Innateness Hypothesis

Is language innate?
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Biologically Controlled Behaviors

emerges before necessary appearance not the result of conscious decision emergence not triggered by external events
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universal grammar: the set of characteristics shared by all languages

direct teaching and intensive practice have little effect regular sequence of milestones, usually correlated with age critical period likely to occur for acquisition of the behavior
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Oral Structure of Infant & Adult

Critical-Age Hypothesis
Definition: acquisition has to be finished before a certain age or else native proficiency would never be achieved Supports come from two sources
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feral children second language acquisition: children vs. adults

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Milestones in Motor and Language Development (I)

Age 3 mths 4 mths 5 mths 6 mths 8 mths 10 mths Motor supports head briefly plays with rattle sits with props sits up very well stands holding on creeps efficiently Language cooing chuckling cooing involving consonants babbling (ex) mu, pa, ga reduplication (ex) mama, papa imitates sounds

Milestones in Motor and Language Development (II)

Age
12 mths 18 mths 24 mths 30 mths 36 mths 48 mths
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Motor
walks when held creeps downstairs backward runs jumps with both feet tiptoes three yards jumps over rope

Language
replicates identical sound sequences has a repertoire of words (3 n 50) forms two-word phrases fast increase in vocabulary vocabulary of over 1000 words language well established
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Theories of Language Acquisition

Imitation Theory Reinforcement Theory Active Construction of a Grammar Theory

Imitation Theory
Definition: claims that children acquire language by listening to the speech around them and reproducing what they hear
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support: genetic makeup does not determine language acquisition problem 1: errors children make (ex) nana, eated problem 2: children and adults are able to produce and perceive new utterances
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Reinforcement Theory
Definition: children learn to speak like adults through reinforcement and correction
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Active Construction of Grammar

Definition: children acquire a language by inventing rules of grammar based on the speech around them
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problem 1: adults seldom correct childrens grammatical errors problem 2: correction has no effect on children

support: errors (ex) walked vs. goed

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Stages of Acquisition
Babbling stage: a phase in the course of child language acquisition during which time the child produces nonmeaningful sequences of consonants and vowels Holophrasic stage: a phase in child language acquisition in which children are limited to one word at a time in their production Two-word stage: a phase in child language acquisition in which children start to put two words together Telegraphic stage: a phase during child language acquisition in which children use utterances composed primarily of content words
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Babbling Stage: 6 mths

Children produce a large variety of speech sounds, even those not in their language practicing articulatory muscles Children with deaf parents or deaf themselves babble too no input is required Babbling is stimulus-free (animal languages are always stimulus-bound) Produce sequence of CV combination, [b p m d t a] are always the first to acquire [ba pa ma da ta] always referring to parents in all languages
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Holophrasic Stage: 1 1.5 yrs

Generally expresses desire for actions, (ex) up get me up, nana I want banana Conveys emotions (ex) no One word utterance serves as naming function(ex) da doll Vocabulary size normally between 5 50 words, average 15

Two-word Stage: 1.5 2 yrs

(ex) mommy sock
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Mommys sock possessive-possession Mommy is putting socks on me subject-object The sweater is on the chair subject-locative The sweater and the chair conjunctive

(ex) sweater chair

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Telegraphic Stage: depends

No function words (a, the, in, on), only content words (Ns, Vs) (ex) Where my sock = Where is my sock; No sit here = Dont sit here Omit inflectional endings (ex) plural, past tense, -ing ending

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