Psycholinguistics

Design Features of Human Language

 Vocal-auditory channel
 Broadcast transmission and directional reception
 Rapid fading
 Interchangeability
 Total Feedback
 Discreteness
 Semanticity
 Arbitrariness
 Displacement
 Openness
 Tradition
 Duality of Pattern
 Prevarication
 Reflectiveness
 Learnability
 Hocket (1960)
 Relationship between
language and Mind

 How language works in our mind

 How language helps us in understanding the
structure and functions of the mind
 How the understanding of the functioning of mind
helps us in making inferences about the nature
and structure of human language
 How the complex phenomenon of language is
acquired and used with efficiency and ease
 How are the meaning constructed and
understood by the interlocutors.
 How the mind relates the linguistic signs with
their signifiers and signifieds
 How the mind combines sounds to construct
larger units like words and sentences
 How the interlocutors are able to understand
what is not even said or other than what has
been said.
 Defining Psycholinguistics
 The study of the psychological processes that play a role
in the use and the acquisition of language.
 The use of language and speech as a window to the
nature and structure of the human mind is called
psycholinguistics (Scovel, 2004).
 According to Harley (2008), psycholinguistics is concerned
with “how the study of language plays a major role in
helping to understand human behavior.”
 It deals with language acquisition, production,
comprehension and loss.
The questions asked in
psycholinguistics
 How do humans acquire their native language?
 What happens in the head of a listener when he
hears a word or an utterance?
 How does a speaker plan a sentence?
 What happens in the head of speaker when he
names a picture?
 How are we able to attach the right grammatical
structure to an utterance?
Linguistic Determinism
 Language determines our thoughts.
 It also determines our knowledge and other
processes such as categorization, memory,
and perception.
 It means that people speaking a certain
language can not understand certain concepts
in another language.
 Also called the Strong Determinism
 This view discounts the possibility of
bilingualism and translation
Linguistic Relativity (Sapir-
Whorf Hypothesis)
 Human beings experience the world based on
the structure of the language they habitually
use.
 Different language structures lead you to see
and interpret the world in different ways.
 For example, people find it easier to recognize
the shades of colours for which they have a
specific name (Pashto).
 Number system of Piraha tribe in the Amazons.
 Forms of address
Biological Bases of
Language
 Origin of Language
 Earliest speech might have been onomatopoeic.
 Exclamations
 Mimicry (bow-wow/ding-dong/yo-heave-ho theory)
 Beneficial adaptation
 Darwinian concept of natural selection
 If there are animals that you can eat and the animals that can eat
you, and you can communicate this information to others, puts you
in an advantageous position.
 Side-effect theory
 Language arose as a side-effect of the evolution of something
else.
 Increase in brain size and complexity
 Development of articulatory apparatus
 Protolanguage
 Bickerton (1990, 2003) proposed the idea of a
protolanguage.
 Protolanguage was intermediate between primate
communication system and human language.
 No syntax, just vocal symbols
 Primates taught sign language to their off springs
 Children deprived of early linguistic input and speakers
of pidgin languages are said to use protolanguage.
 FOXP2 Gene
 Recently, the scientific evidence suggests that
important aspects of language and grammar may
be associated with a specific gene named FOXP2.
 Damage to this gene leads to difficulty in acquiring
language normally.
 “The evidence suggests that the current structure
of the FOXP2 gene in humans arose through a
mutation 100,000 years ago (Corballis, 2004 cited
in Harley, 2008).
 Use of Hands
 Paget (1930) first proposed that language evolved in
intimate connection with hand gestures. Vocal gestures
evolved later to supplement the hand signals.
 Corballis (1992) believes that language arose not from
primate calls, but from primate gestures.
 Brains of the apes are specialized in a very similar way to
human beings.
 When primates turned into biped Homo Sapiens, the
hands were freed for gesturing and when they acquired
speech, the hands were freed for making tools.
 proconsul
(23-15 Myrs)
 Australopithecus
afarensis
4-2.5 Myrs

proconsul
(23-15 Myrs)
 Australopithecus
afarensis
4-2.5 Myrs

proconsul
(23-15 Myrs)

Homo habilis
2.5 Myrs
 Australopithecus
afarensis
4-2.5 Myrs

proconsul
(23-15 Myrs)

Homo habilis Homo erectus

2.5 Myrs 1.5 Myrs
 Australopithecus
afarensis
4-2.5 Myrs

proconsul
(23-15 Myrs)

Homo
Homo habilis Homo erectus
neanderthalensis
2.5 Myrs 1.5 Myrs
200,000 Yrs
 Australopithecus
afarensis
4-2.5 Myrs

proconsul
(23-15 Myrs)

Homo
Homo habilis Homo erectus Homo
neanderthalensis
2.5 Myrs 1.5 Myrs Sapiens
200,000 Yrs
 Australopithecus
afarensis
4-2.5 Myrs

proconsul
(23-15 Myrs)

Homo
Homo habilis Homo erectus Homo
neanderthalensis
2.5 Myrs 1.5 Myrs Sapiens
200,000 Yrs

Copyright © David Gifford/Science Photo Library

 Language and Animals
 Do animals communicate?
 Do animals have language?
 Is language a uniquely human ability?
 Parrots - can memorize chunks of human speech

Polly wanna
cracker Polly is sweet

 But are they really producing utterances

based on an underlying meaning?
 Birds use songs to serve territorial and
courtship functions.

Tweet chirp chirp

warble
warble chirp.

Translation: this is my tree.

 Can songs be used productively?

 Birds use songs to serve territorial and
courtship functions.

Chirp chirp warble

warble tweet chirp?

Translation: Is this my
tree?

 Can songs be used productively?

 Honey bees dance to indicate where a
source of nectar is. (von Frisch, 1954)

• Angle of the dance indicates

direction
• Rate of looping indicates
distance
 Talking Chimps: Gua and Viki
 Kellog and Kellog (1933) cross-fostered a female
chimp named Gua.
 Understood a few words and never produced any
recognizable words.
 Hayes (1951) reared a chimp named Viki.
 After 6 years it could produce poorly articulated
words (“mama,” “papa,” “up,” and “cup”).
 She could, however, understand more words and
combinations thereof than Gua.
 Washoe
 Later attempts were based on teaching chimps
sign language or some artificially created symbol
system.
 Washoe was trained in social activities and taught
ASL.
 At 4, she could produce about 85 signs and
understood more.
 By 6, her vocabulary had in creased to
approximately 150-200 signs from different
categories.
 Washoe made errors of over-generalization like
young kids. (using “flower” sign for flower-like smell
and “hurt” sign for tattoo).
 Could create a new sign when did not know the
sign.
 Could create syntactically correct strings
 “Washoe sorry,” “baby down,” “go in,” “hug hurry” etc.
 Showed understanding of word order.
 “you tickle me” and “I tickle you.”
 Sarah and Premackese
 Premack (1971, 1976a, 1976b, 1985, 1986a)
created a set of plastic symbols for training his
chimp named Sarah.
 Sarah produced simple lexical concepts.
 Could manipulate strings by substitution.
 Randy give apple Sarah.
 Randy give banana Sarah.
 She could create complex sentences by using
connectors etc, but there was little evidence that
she was forming proper syntactic structures.
 Nim Chimpsky
 Terrace et al. (1979) taught Nim a language based
on ASL.
 Nim learned about 125 signs and 20,000
utterances were recorded by researchers.
 There was regularity in two-word strings; however,
the longer the string, the more the repetitions.
 90% of his utterances were replies and concerned
immediate activities like eating, drinking etc.
 40% of his utterances were repetitions of the signs
made by trainers.
 Nim vs Human Child
Child
 it ball see ball get ball there ball want baby
 it doll see doll get doll there doll want car
 it checker, see Steve, get Betty there momma, want do
 it daddy there doggie, want get
 it boy there book want up
Nim
1. Eat drink eat drink 6. grape eat Nim eat
2. Banana Nim banana Nim 7. banana eat me Nim
3. Eat Nim eat Nim 8. banana me eat banana
4. Nim eat Nim eat 9. play me Nim play
5. Banana me Nim me 10. drink Nim drink Nim
 Kanzi
 Sue Savage-Rumbaugh suggested that the pygmy
chimps (panpaniscus) are more intelligent, have a
rich social life and have a larger communicative
repertoire.
 Savage-Rumbaugh communicated with Kanzi with
the help of a board containing lexigrams.
 Kanzi did not receive any formal training by
reinforcements with food on the correct production
of a symbol.
 Kanzi is believed to have learnt some of the signs
from his mother named Matata.
 By the age of 46 months, Kanzi learned 50
symbols and could produce about 800
combinations.
 He understood the syntactic order:
 “Put the ball on the hat” and “Put the hat on the ball.”
 Kanzi used words for a variety of purposes.
 Best case of a primate learning the human
language.
 However, no evidence of learning of grammar
rules
Ability to Ask Questions
 Most of the chimpanzees, including Kanzi
and Nim Chimpsky always responded to the
trainers’ signs.
 No chimpanzee ever asked any question.
 Asking questions and ability to initiate
utterances is considered as the fundamental
difference between human and animal
communication system.
Alex (Avian Learning Experiment)
 A grey African parrot, object of a thirty year
experiment (1976-2007) by an American
animal psychologist Irene Pepperberg
 Alex was trained through a rival/model
technique
 It understood seven colors and five shapes
 Made demands with the words “wanna” picked
from the people around him
 Showed surprise and anger when given an
object different from the one promised to him.
 He could correct errors, and showed to have
achieved object permanence.
 Could construct new words (“banerry”)
 Was believed to understand turn-taking
 Understood concepts like big-small, same-
different
 Could handle numbers upto 6
 Considered to be the only non-human
species to have ever asked a question
 While looking in the mirror, he asked, “What
color?”
 Alex showed intelligence similar to dolphins
and great apes.
 At the time of death it had the emotional level
of a two-year old human
 Language and the Brain
 Broca and Vernicke first discovered that language
functions were localized.
 Paul Broca discovered an area in the left
hemisphere of the brain associated with speech
production.
 Coined the term Aphasia
 Broca’s Aphasia is characterized by slow and hesitant
speech and writing, or complete loss of it.
 Function words are usually omitted altogether, and the
entire speech consists of mostly content words which
are hesitant or inaccurate.
 Yes … ah … Monday … er … Dad and Peter H …,
and Dad … er … hospital … and ah …
Wednesday … Wednesday, nine o’ clock … and
oh … Thursday … ten o’ clock, ah doctors … two
… an’ doctors … and er … teeth … yah
 I eggs and eat and drink coffee breakfast.
 My cheek…very annoyance…main is my
shoulder…achin’ all round here.
 A stail… you know what I mean…a tal…stail.
 Vernicke’s Aphasia
 Karl Vernicke discovered another area in the brain
which was associated with speech comprehension.
 Vernicke’s Aphasia leads to retarded
comprehension. However, production is relatively
fluent and comfortable, but usually meaningless.
 Damage to sensory cortex results in trouble
processing linguistic input.
 Difficulty in finding the right word, called anomia,
also happens in Vernicke’s Apahsia.
 Well this is … mother is away here working her work out o’
here to get her better but when she’s looking, the two boys
looking in the other part. One their small tile into her time
here. She’s working another time because she’s getting
too…
 The thing to put cigarettes in (for ‘ashtray’).
 It’s blowing, on the right, and er there’s four letters in it,
and I think it begins with a C – goes - when you start it
then goes right in the air – I would I would have to keep
racking my brain how I would spell that word – that flies,
that doesn’t fly, you pull it round, it goes up in the air.
 Conduction Aphasia
 Damage to arcuate fasciculus leads to conduction
Aphasia.
 Articulation is normal, but words may be
mispronounced.
 Comprehension is also good, but repeating the
heard information is difficult, since what the
speaker hears can not be transferred to speech
production area.
 Vaysse for base
 Fosh for wash
 Lateralization/Dominance
 Broca’s and Vernicke’s areas proved that the
language was usually processed in the left
hemisphere of the brain.
 However, later studies revealed that some south-
paw or ambidextrous people showed right-
hemisphere dominance for language processing.
 Lateralization occurred in the critical period.
 Dichotic Listening
 It’s an experiment which proves that the language
is processed in the right hemisphere of the brain.
 Anything experienced in the right-hand side of the
body is processed in the left hemisphere of the
brain and anything experienced in the left side is
processed in the right hemisphere.
 A subject sits with two earphones on. Two different
sounds are played in both earphones
simultaneously. The sound played in right ear is
generally correctly identified.
 Critical Period Hypothesis
 American Psychologist Lenneberg suggested the
existence of a critical period for language learning.
 Both hemispheres are equipotential at birth.
 Language becomes gradually lateralized in the left
hemisphere.
 The process begins at 2 and ends at puberty.
 After puberty, the brain loses its neural plasticity
and language functions are firmly lateralized.
 If a child does not get any linguistic input during
the critical period, s/he loses the ability to learn a
language.
 Genie
 Discovered in 1970 at the age of 13.
 She was severely underdeveloped linguistically.
 Her linguistic development was limited.
 She could learn words, but failed to use them
syntactically correctly.
 Could not learn inflectional morphology
 Could not make passives
 Could not make proper negatives
 Showed left ear and right hemisphere advantage
Oxana Malaya
 A Ukrainian girl neglected by her drunk parents
started living with dogs from 3 to 9 years of her
age.
 Learnt to eat with her mouth walked on all four
 She barked instead of speaking, but later learnt
the language.
 It is assumed that she might have learnt some
language before the age of three and must
have heard people speak around her.
Language Acquisition
Linguistic Abilities of the Speakers
 Word Association Theory
 According to J. B. Watson, we acquire new verbal
creations “by manipulating words, shifting them
about until a new pattern is hit upon. Since we are
never in the same general situation, the word
pattern will always be different. The elements are
all old, it is only the arrangement that is different.”.
 He makes the following claims:
 Words consist of sound forms which are related to
objects and events in the environment.
 Speakers learn the connections between the words.
 We learn through hit and trial.
 The boy melted the ice.
 The ice melted.
 the-boy
 boy-melted
 melted-the
 the-ice
 ice-melted
 *The boy melted the ice melted the boy melted.
 Word-Class Association Theory
 Staat (1968) proposed a theory that sentences are
formed with association of word classes.
 Different from Watson’s that it made use of word
classes and that the words in those classes could
be substituted.
 The boy melted the ice.
 The girl melted the wax.
 Like Watson’s theory, it could also generate
ungrammatical sentences.
 Sentence Frame Theory
 B. F. Skinner (1957) proposed that speakers learn
‘standard patterns’ as a basis of sentence
composition.
 Frames are composed of ‘key responses’ nouns,
verbs and adjectives.
 Once key responses are ordered, other words can
be added.
 N+Adj for man+hungry and then other quantifiers a/the
can be added and the qualifiers is/was can be added.
 Objections
 The bird the girl bought chirped.
 Transformational-Generative
Grammar
 Chomsky (1959) proposed the idea of transformational
and generative abilities in language production.
 Proposed the concept of deep structure and surface
structure.
 Language is structure dependent.
 Every sentence has an internal structure which must be
understood by the hearer.