The Domain of Psycholinguistics Inquiry

The Domain of
Psycholinguistics Inquiry
Linguistics
is the discipline that

describes the structure of
language, including its
grammar, sound system
and vocabulary.
Transformational Generative
Grammar movement
has forced the subject of the

link between language and
its relationship to the human
psychology to the fore front
of linguistic studies.
Psycholinguistics
Aitchison (1990) defines

psycholinguistics as the study
of language and mind, which
“aims to model the way the
mind” works in “relation to
language”.
Processes Involved in Psycholinguistic
Inquiry
Comprehension : how people understand

spoken and written language.
Speech production : how people produce
language.
Acquisition : how people learn language. It
focuses on how children acquire a first
language.
A. Speech Comprehension Process
Speech comprehension is actually

about understanding speech.
 Steinberg, Nagata and Aline (2001)
traced the beginning of speech
comprehension from the womb.
It was however impossible to finalise
the very beginning of speech
comprehension in children.
 The essential thing about
speech comprehension is the
fact that it can occur in
individuals once they can
establish communication
occurrence in terms of
meaning making.
 Steinberg, Nagata &
Aline (2001) state that
except the word in the
language is linked to real
or existent element, it
cannot be regarded as
able to be meaningful.
Steinberg, Nagata and Aline
also aver that thought is the
foundation of language.
 The idea is that without thought,
language cannot form meaning.
 It is possible to have the
comprehension of language
without the ability to produce it.
B. The Speech Production Processes
1. Lexical selection
2. Assemblage
Lexical selection
There is an attempt to
choose particular words that
fit into the intended meaning
but the wrong or related in
terms of meaning or sound
may be chosen instead.
Example:
1. someone may say knife

instead of wife
2. In answering an older
caller, we may say Sir to
a woman instead of
Maam or vice versa.
Assemblage
The slip of tongue phenomenon gives
the easiest clue to the assemblage
process.
 There are about three possible
manners in which the process occurs.
(Aitchison, 1990)
1. anticipation
2. perseverations
3. transpositions
1. Anticipation has to do
with when an item
comes earlier than
expected.
2. Perseverations is
the wrong repetition
of a linguistic item.
3. Transpositions tend to
involve a situation where
items substitute one
another.
Ex. He took sail out of
his winds. (transposition)
C. Language Acquisition
 Language acquisition is
considered a normal process
in development.
 The assumption here is that
there are stages of human
speech development.
Steinberg et al (2001) have tried
to show that the stage of language
learning or acquisition by children
involves the neonate stage.
 Scovel (1998) argues that
children begin to manifest their
acquisition of their mother tongue
as eighteen months.
These authors call the initial sounds
made by the child iconic as it
merely expresses signs of
discomfort or sudden outbursts that
may seem inexplicable.
 The following stage from about two
months is the crying stage is
considered the precursor to the
actual human speech.
The question is:
 Did the child pick up

this ability to speak from
its environment or is it
naturally predisposed to
this skill?
 Chomsky (1965) has
proposed that all human
beings have the congenital
ability to acquire language
due to a naturally inbuilt
mechanism called the
Language Acquisition Device
(LAD).
 Chomsky (1981)
later modified this to
Universal Grammar (UG)
which Scovel (1998)
describes as a more
appropriate term.
Scovel argued no
human being in reality
lacks the ability to
speak eventually if the
linguistic inputs are
provided...
...except in a situation where
a congenital
malformation occurred, which
could result in the inability of
the person to ever master the
neuromuscular skills required
for speech production.
 Language ability in the human
species starts early as well as
determinedly so advance that
animals of the lower class are
never able to attain such
linguistic skill because nature
did not provide for such ability
in them.
 Children tend to
follow the pattern of
their target language in
terms of its phonology
and syntax.
Creativity is also a mark of the child’s acquisition of language.
Example 2:
Stages in Language Acquisition
One important point made by
scholars here is that none of
these stages are ever skipped.
 The length of time an
individual uses in each stage is
determined by the individual
cognitive level.
Scovel also avers that an adult
learning a new language
undergoes each of these
stages.
It is consequently obvious
that it is not age that
determines the language
acquisition process, but the
progression ability of
individuals.

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The Domain of

is the discipline that

has forced the subject of the

Aitchison (1990) defines

Comprehension : how people understand

Speech comprehension is actually

1. someone may say knife

 Did the child pick up

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