Psycholinguistics
Lectures 1-6
Lecture 1 week 9
Introduction
- linguistics investigates the language system
- psycholinguistics investigates language processing in the brain and parts of the brain
that are involved in language processing
- experimental methods that are used:
- reaction time and errors
- brain damage
- neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI, PET etc.)
- the study of language acquisition, production, comprehension
- words are stored in the mental lexicon
- sound form
- spelling
- meaning
- syntactic properties
- language psychology
- modern psycholinguistics is an experimental science
- modularity (Fodor 1983)
- processing starts with an input -> processed -> output (output is the input for
the next step)
- a module is an independent set of processes that works autonomously
- box and arrow diagrams (boxology)
- discrete models
- interactivity: overlap in the processes between steps -> interactive models
- connectionism: brain has neurons that are connected to each other
- psycholinguistic research
- theory
- model
- hypothesis
- experiment
- multidisciplinary: a lot of disciplines are used besides it
Lecture 2 week 10
Language production and speech errors
Speech production
- speech recognition + comprehension research > easier production
- two sources of evidence
- analysis of speech errors (natural/artificial)
- controlled experiments in a lab
- Levelt’s model of speech production
- based on both evidences
- three stages: conceptualization, formulation, articulation
- (self-)monitoring (not an actual stage)
Levelt’s model
, - conceptualization (meaning): deciding what to say
- formulation: translating it in linguistic form (so in words)
- lexical access (process of accessing the mental lexicon and looking for
words)
- articulation (speech): words are said in speech/gestures (so execution of speech
plan) (motor-behaviour)
- mental lexicon accessed during formulation and comprehension
Speech
- speaking is unique for only humans. It’s a complex form of behaviour that’s not an
automatic process
- Butterworth 1992: normal speakers make mistakes frequently
- switched sound usually are in the same kind of position in a word, e.g. end of the
syllable ‘bakpad’ instead of ‘badpak’
- spoonerism: exchange errors (sounds of words are exchanges, e.g. hissed mystery)
- interesting and important because we can infer how far the speaker is
planning ahead
- Freudian slips: Freud said there’s always a reason why we make errors (underlying,
unconscious reasons -> unconscious thoughts)
- problem: sometimes we make non-words + sometimes it’s difficult to come up
with a story about the unconscious thought (post-hoc explanation of the error)
- it’s not a theory
- Meringer (1908?): speech errors aren’t accidental; there are rules for errors
- Garrett (1982?): mechanisms of speech productions sometimes produce errors that
can be explained by the mechanisms that underlie the system
- two modes for studying speech production: direct experimental manipulation
and systematic observation of spontaneous speech
Segment exchanges
- target= what the speaker wanted to say
- intruder= what the speaker actually ends up saying
- source= original position of the intruder
- arrangement according to direction of process:
- anticipation: intruder appears earlier than its source, e.g. een luchte lunch
- perseveration: intruder appears later than its source, e.g. een bloemetje
blengen
- arrangement according to result:
- insertion: an element is added, e.g. bloven (boven)
- deletion: an element disappears, e.g. speken (spreken)
- substitution: an element is added where another disappears, e.g. blengen
(brengen)
- transposition/shift: an element is added that is deleted somewhere, e.g. vees
of vlis
- permutation/exchange: two elements change places (= spoonerisms)
Fromkin’s model of speech production (1971)
- box and arrow model
- based on observations of speech errors
- way before Levelt’s model
- everything what we see in later models is in it
Lectures 1-6
Lecture 1 week 9
Introduction
- linguistics investigates the language system
- psycholinguistics investigates language processing in the brain and parts of the brain
that are involved in language processing
- experimental methods that are used:
- reaction time and errors
- brain damage
- neuroimaging (EEG, fMRI, PET etc.)
- the study of language acquisition, production, comprehension
- words are stored in the mental lexicon
- sound form
- spelling
- meaning
- syntactic properties
- language psychology
- modern psycholinguistics is an experimental science
- modularity (Fodor 1983)
- processing starts with an input -> processed -> output (output is the input for
the next step)
- a module is an independent set of processes that works autonomously
- box and arrow diagrams (boxology)
- discrete models
- interactivity: overlap in the processes between steps -> interactive models
- connectionism: brain has neurons that are connected to each other
- psycholinguistic research
- theory
- model
- hypothesis
- experiment
- multidisciplinary: a lot of disciplines are used besides it
Lecture 2 week 10
Language production and speech errors
Speech production
- speech recognition + comprehension research > easier production
- two sources of evidence
- analysis of speech errors (natural/artificial)
- controlled experiments in a lab
- Levelt’s model of speech production
- based on both evidences
- three stages: conceptualization, formulation, articulation
- (self-)monitoring (not an actual stage)
Levelt’s model
, - conceptualization (meaning): deciding what to say
- formulation: translating it in linguistic form (so in words)
- lexical access (process of accessing the mental lexicon and looking for
words)
- articulation (speech): words are said in speech/gestures (so execution of speech
plan) (motor-behaviour)
- mental lexicon accessed during formulation and comprehension
Speech
- speaking is unique for only humans. It’s a complex form of behaviour that’s not an
automatic process
- Butterworth 1992: normal speakers make mistakes frequently
- switched sound usually are in the same kind of position in a word, e.g. end of the
syllable ‘bakpad’ instead of ‘badpak’
- spoonerism: exchange errors (sounds of words are exchanges, e.g. hissed mystery)
- interesting and important because we can infer how far the speaker is
planning ahead
- Freudian slips: Freud said there’s always a reason why we make errors (underlying,
unconscious reasons -> unconscious thoughts)
- problem: sometimes we make non-words + sometimes it’s difficult to come up
with a story about the unconscious thought (post-hoc explanation of the error)
- it’s not a theory
- Meringer (1908?): speech errors aren’t accidental; there are rules for errors
- Garrett (1982?): mechanisms of speech productions sometimes produce errors that
can be explained by the mechanisms that underlie the system
- two modes for studying speech production: direct experimental manipulation
and systematic observation of spontaneous speech
Segment exchanges
- target= what the speaker wanted to say
- intruder= what the speaker actually ends up saying
- source= original position of the intruder
- arrangement according to direction of process:
- anticipation: intruder appears earlier than its source, e.g. een luchte lunch
- perseveration: intruder appears later than its source, e.g. een bloemetje
blengen
- arrangement according to result:
- insertion: an element is added, e.g. bloven (boven)
- deletion: an element disappears, e.g. speken (spreken)
- substitution: an element is added where another disappears, e.g. blengen
(brengen)
- transposition/shift: an element is added that is deleted somewhere, e.g. vees
of vlis
- permutation/exchange: two elements change places (= spoonerisms)
Fromkin’s model of speech production (1971)
- box and arrow model
- based on observations of speech errors
- way before Levelt’s model
- everything what we see in later models is in it
