THE SUMMARY OF PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

OFFICE MANAGEMENT

 

MARLINCE FARIDA GELI

NIM 111OO80481

SEMESTER VII

SEKOLH TINGGI ILMU BAHASA ASING

CKRAWALA NUSANTARA

KUPANG

2014

 

Mid Test

The Summary of Psycholinguistics

Name              :Andrianto Stefanus Geli

Semester         : VII

Language is generally considered as a primary tools of human communication plays important role in human life, thus, it is used to communicate one another confortably and perfectly in order that people can construct a better relationship with others. In this writing, there are several points which going to be disscussed corcerning the language we use. They are disscussed in the following :

1.    The Definitions of Language

Generally, language can be defined into several meanings :

1. The means of human communication, consisting of the use of spoken or written words in a   structured way.

2. The system of communication used by a particular community or country.

3. A particular style of speaking or writing: legal language.

4. Computing a system of symbols and rules for writing programs.

In linguistic study, language is defined as a system of spoken or written symbols those human beings as a means of communication in the form of sound. In another words, language is a system which means the language formed by the various components of the irregular and fixed. The system of language is made up of sound symbols which symbols represent a concept or meaning.

2.    The Essence of Language

Language is a tool to convey information, ideas, concepts or feeling that comes to the heart, in the sense of the word as a means of conveying something. It is supported by Plato who stated that language is essentially a statement of one's mind by means onomata (name objects or something) and rhemata (speech), which is a reflection of the idea of someone in the mind. According to Edward Sapir (1884–1939), in his book of Language: An Introduction to the Study of Speech.  1921 stated that, language is primarily an auditory system of symbols. Moreover he argued that language is a purely human and noninstinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions, and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols. These symbols are, in the first instance, auditory and they are produced by the so-called “organs of speech.” There is no discernible instinctive basis in human speech as such, however much instinctive expressions and the natural environment may serve as a stimulus for the development of certain elements of speech, therefore much instinctive tendencies, motor and other, may give a predetermined range or mold to linguistic expression.

3.    The History of Language

We are forced to believe that language is an immensely ancient heritage of the human race, whether or not all forms of speech are the historical outgrowth of a single pristine form. All social animals communicate with each other, from bees and ants to whales and apes, but only humans have developed a language which is more than a set of prearranged signals. Our speech even differs in a physical way from the communication of other animals. It comes from a cortical speech centre which does not respond instinctively, but organises sound and meaning on a rational basis. This section of the brain is unique to humans. When and how the special talent of language developed is impossible to say. But it is generally assumed that its evolution must have been a long process. Our ancestors were probably speaking a million years ago, but with a slower delivery, a smaller vocabulary and above all a simpler grammar than we are accustomed to.

There are some experts who are considered as the founders of Psycholinguistics :

a.       According to Chomsky in his book, A History of Psycholinguistics: The Pre-Chomskyan Era (Oxford University Press, 2012) stated that, Pim Levelt is a major player in psycholinguistics, and the progress made of the psychology of language between its actual foundation around 1800 and it’s widely and erroneously believed to have been founded around 1951.

b.      Wilhelm Wundt is known as the "father of experimental psychology" and the founder of the first experimental psycholinguistic laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. Wundt claimed that there is a special field of study dealing with the link between the mind and the body.

c.       Ferdinand de Saussure, one of the preeminent structuralist argued in his book Course in General Linguistics, (which was composed by colleagues after he died, based on notes he composed), he analyzes not the use of language but the underlying system of language. Saussure claimed that linguistic signs were made up of two parts: the first is the signifier, which is the action when somebody says or thinks of a word. The second is the signified, which is the meaning or the concept of a word.

4.    The Function of Language

According to Roman Jakobson defined six functions of language (or communication functions), which an effective act of verbal communication can be described. Each of the functions has an associated factor. For this work, Jakobson was influenced by Karl Bühler's Organon-Model, to which he added the poetic, phatic and metalingual functions.The six factors of an effective verbal communication. To each one corresponds a communication function (not displayed in this picture).

The six functions of language are :

a.    The Referential Function corresponds to the factor of Context and describes a situation, object or mental state. The descriptive statements of the referential function can consist of both definite descriptions and deictic words, e.g. "The autumn leaves have all fallen now.

b.    The Expressive (alternatively called "emotive" or "affective") Function relates to the Addresser (sender) and is best exemplified by interjections and other sound changes that do not alter the denotative meaning of an utterance but do add information about the Addresser's (speaker's) internal state, e.g. "Wow, what a view!"

c.    The Conative Function engages the Addressee (receiver) directly and is best illustrated by vocatives and imperatives, e.g. "Tom! Come inside and eat!"

d.   The Poetic Function focuses on "the message for its own sake" (the code itself, and how it is used) and is the operative function in poetry as well as slogans.

e.    The Phatic Function is language for the sake of interaction and is therefore associated with the Contact/Channel factor. The Phatic Function can be observed in greetings and casual discussions of the weather, particularly with strangers. It also provides the keys to open, maintain, verify or close the communication channel: "Hello?", "Ok?", "Hummm", "Bye"...

f.     The Metalingual (alternatively called "metalinguistic" or "reflexive") Function is the use of language (what Jakobson calls "Code") to discuss or describe itself. (All this article is an example of metalinguistic Function).

5.    The definition of Psycholinguistics

Generally, Psycholinguistics is the study of mental aspects of language and speech, a branch of linguistics and psychology. In other words, Psycholinguistics is also known as the psychology of language. Etimologycally, the word psycholinguistics is derived from the Greek which means “Mind” and Latin Which means “Tongue”.

There are some experts who define the concepts of Psycholinguistics as follows :

a.    According to (William O'Grady, et al, Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. Bedford/St.Martin's,2001), stated that, Psycholinguistics is study how word meaning, sentence meaning, and discourse meaning are computed and represented in the mind. They study how complex words and sentences are composed in speech and how they are broken down into their constituents in the acts of listening and reading. In short, psycholinguists seek to understand how language is done.

In general, psycholinguistic studies have revealed that many of the concepts employed in the analysis of sound structure, word structure, and sentence structure also play a role in language processing. However, an account of language processing also requires that we understand how these linguistic concepts interact with other aspects of human processing to enable language production and comprehension.

b.    According to (John Field, Psycholinguistics: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge, 2003) revealed that, Psycholinguistics draws on ideas and knowledge from a number of associated areas, such as phonetics, semantics and pure linguistics. There is a constant exchange of information between psycholinguists and those working in neurolinguistics, who study how language is represented in the brain. There are also close links with studies in artificial intelligence. Indeed, much of the early interest in language processing derived from the AI goals of designing computer programs that can turn speech into writing and programs that can recognize the human voice.

c.    According to (Friedmann Pulvermüller, "Word Processing in the Brain as Revealed by Neurophysiological Imaging. The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics, ed. by M. Gareth Gaskell. Oxford Univ. Press, 2009) explaned that Psycholinguistics has classically focused on button press tasks and reaction time experiments from which cognitive processes are being inferred. The advent of neuroimaging opened new research perspectives for the psycholinguist as it became possible to look at the neuronal mass activity that underlies language processing. Studies of brain correlates of psycholinguistic processes can complement behavioral results, and in some cases can lead to direct information about the basis of psycholinguistic processes.

Based on the explanation above related to the definition of pshycholinguistics, it might be concluted that, Psycholinguistics is concerned with the study of psychology and language of human beings, which the components  and the process of language production are related to human utturences and behavior which represented in human brain. It also studies how language is used to produce the understanding about language process. Moreover, it shapes a comprehensive of the use language which spoken up.

6.    The Relationship Between Language, Thinking And Culture

There are some notions dealing with the relationship between language, thinking and culture which are defined by several experts as the following :

1.    Benjamin Whorf proposed that language influences thought. Whorf’s hypothesis has taken two approaches to the matter that demonstrates that our concepts and ideas are guided through the language used around us. The first version is called ‘strong’ determinism, i.e. that the language we speak determines the nature of our thought’ (Lund 2003: 11). To demonstrate this, Whorf uses the example of ‘time’ in relation to the native American Hopi language. To users of English, the concept of ‘time’ is related to the past, present or future. However, Whorf found that the Hopi language does not apply the same principle (Lund 2003: 12). Whorf claims there is no objectivity of the concept of ‘time’, ‘time’ simply used to portray ‘getting later’ (Whorf 2011: 45). This suggests that Hopi language thrives off cultural influences, the way they language reflecting this. The second version is ‘weak determinism’, whereby ‘language influences thought’ (Lund 2003: 11), appears more applicable when discussing language as it reinforces an influence, rather than our mind being ‘taken over’. He thinks that, with this we can argue that language has a more ‘subtle’ effect on our thought, our experiences and surroundings in theory impacting the way we use language.

2.    Nick Lund (2003: 23) explains how studies show that although language development in deaf children can be impaired, their thought processes are typical. This is justified because young children that are not detected as being ‘deaf’ straight away are said to exhibit behaviours that are deemed ‘normal’. This suggests that there is no connection between language and thought because their behaviour through interactions and responses implies otherwise (Napoli & Lee-Schoenfeld 2010: 51-52).

3.    Popularly known as the Sapir–Whorf hypothesis, or Whorfianism, the principle is often defined to include two versions. The strong version says that language determines thought, and that linguistic categories limit and determine cognitive categories, whereas the weak version says only that linguistic categories and usage influence thought and certain kinds of non-linguistic behaviour. The term "Sapir–Whorf hypothesis" is a misnomer, because Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf never co-authored anything, and never stated their ideas in terms of a hypothesis. The distinction between a weak and a strong version of this hypothesis is also a later invention; Sapir and Whorf never set up such a dichotomy, although often in their writings their views of this relativity principle are phrased in stronger or weaker terms.

4.    Wilhelm von Humboldt, who saw language as the expression of the spirit of a nation.

5.    Noam Chomsky (1968) Language and Mind

Anyone concerned with the study of human nature and human capacities must somehow come to grips with the fact that all normal humans acquire language, whereas acquisition of even its barest rudiments is quite beyond the capacities of an otherwise intelligent ape – a fact that was emphasised, quite correctly, in Cartesian philosophy.