Unit 1

1. 1 Theoretical bases of psycholinguistics and sociolinguistics Theoretical bases of psycholinguistics Development and boundaries of psycholinguistics Main subject of study Theoretical bases of sociolinguistics Development and boundaries of psycholinguistics Main subject of study

Introduction (contextualization): intersting facts and quotes 1. Noam Chomsky (Language and Mind)  1. When we study human language, we are approaching what some might call the “human essence”, the distinctive qualities that are, so far as we know, unique to man.  2. African tradition KUNTU (a newborn child, “a thing”, not yet “a person”, MUNTU); only by the act of learning a language one becomes a human being (Fromkin& Rodman, 1998, p.3)

Brain and the human mind  A poet’s view vs. a scientist’s view  Read E. Dickinson’s poem (The brain is wider) and discuss it. The Brain is Wider The brain is wider tahn the sky, For put them side by side, The one the other will include With ease, and you beside. The brain is deeper tahn thre sky, For hold them blue to blue, The one the other will absorb As sponges, buckets do. The brain is just ther weight of God, For lift them, pound to pound, And they will differ, if they do, As syllable from sound.

The human brain and the human mind  A poet’s view vs. a scientist’s view (contrast)  How does a scientist approaches the study of a human mind (brain)?

It is an interdisciplinary science that studies the psychological and neurobiological aspects of the language acquisition, production and usage, as well as its understanding (comprehension). In order to study how the brain processes language, the researchers make use of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and information theory.

 was formed as a scientific discipline relatively recently, in 1951, when in the U.S. (Cornell University), a group of American psychologists and linguists proposed the term ‘psycholinguistics’ to be used from then on for the new, interdisciplinary field. The term has spread since then and then and has been adopted by numerous countries.

independent  In the 19 th century both linguistics and psychology formed as independent sciences. human language  The main link between the two sciences then could be seen in their main focus of attention- the human language.

The linguists were studying the language itself while the psychologists (and philosophers too) studied the language as one of the main constituents of a man’s inner (spiritual) life reflecting his thoughts. Before the 19 th century it’s hardly possible to consider neither psychology nor linguistics being really ‘scientific’ disciplines. Psychology started to form as a part of Antique philosophy. It was defined as a “science about the soul”. The interpretation of what was considered the essence of the ‘soul’ varied substantially depending on the philosopher.

50s In the 50s: a) Structural linguistics (or its American form, descriptivism, L. Bloomfield) influenced the linguistic part; b) Behaviorism (influenced the psychological aspect, mainly the theories of F.Skinner); c) Theory of information (language as a code).

In the 60s: - Chomsky’s theories (Natural Grammar) focus attention on language acquisition, universal, innate language capacity of an individual. In the end of 60s and 70s: - Criticism of Chomsky. Theories that focus attention on pragmatics, context, etc.

70s – today 70s – today: Cognitive psychology. Focuses attention on perception and analysis of information. It’s rather difficult to establish the boundaries of psycholinguistics. Since all the leading psycholinguists have worked on a wide range of theoretical issues that practically cover the whole area of linguistics. Nevertheless, there are several main topics being discussed most frequently. It’s important to emphasize again the interdisciplinary nature of the discipline that was formed on the basis of others (linguistics, psychology) and has links to other social sciences, theory of information, neurology, etc.

 There are several subdivisions within psycholinguistics that are based on the components that make up a human language. Among the most commonly studied topics within the discipline (which has further subdivisions as well) belong:

 First language acquisition (L1);  Second language acquisition (L2), how it’s different from L1, bilingualism, etc.  Theory of communication;  Pragmalinguistics (sign languages, gestures, and other non-verbal communication);  Neurolinguistics (deals with the language and the brain);  Computational linguistics (creation of programs being able to understand human language).  Cognitive science (perception of the text, process of understanding, language analysis and processing of information, process of learning, memory, etc.).

Like all disciplines, psycholinguistics has evolved into a conglomeration of sub-fields. In your reading material, i.e. Thomas Scovel: Psycholinguistics), a large body of psycholinguistics is introduced in more digestible pieces. It examines the following four questions: Class activity: Examine your copies of Scovel and tell me in which 4 areas he divides the discipline. You have 10 minutes to do that (in pairs or small groups) Choose a group secretary to write down your responses. (This counts for participation points, any response is worth 1p, the correct response is for 2pp for each member of the group).

Psycholinguistics (Scovel’s division) (1) how are language and speech acquired? (2) How are language and speech produced? (3) How are language and speech comprehended? (4) How are language and speech lost? 1. acquisition, 2. production, 3. comprehension, 4. language loss