University of Education

Lahore Department of English

Course Title: Psycholinguistics

Programme: B.S.English

Course Code: ENGL3127

Instructor Name: Sadia Parveen

Importance of
Language

• Language serves a central role in

our daily lives, be it talking about

complex thoughts and ideas, ordering

lunch, reading a magazine, or

persuading someone to do a favor.

• It’s hard to imagine going through

an entire day without using it without

reading, producing, or understanding

a single word.

• Picture for moment what it would be

like if you needed to get a ride from a

friend to the airport next Saturday but

couldn’t use language in any form to

communicate—how would you ask?

Importance of
Language

• Language is everywhere in human

society, across every culture.

• For most people, it is an effortless

ability that we acquire before we

learn how to dress ourselves.

• Some people feel that they even

think using language, that an

important part of their thoughts

involves a kind of internal monologue.

Importance of
Language

• Yet, language is not a simple

thing—it is actually quite complex
and we need to be able to use it

quickly.

• In fact, its timing is so crucial that

even minor delays during the

processing of language are thought

to have profound consequences.

Rationale for Studying
Psycholinguistics

• Language is more complicated than

it might first appear, and so it is the

very ease of use that makes it so

interesting.

• Let’s start with an analogy—walking

around is also pretty easy for most

people and it is something that we

usually learn to do even before we

learn how to talk.

• But can you explain exactly how it

works—how each muscle, bone, and

tendon allows us to defy gravity at

every step?
Rationale for Studying
Psycholinguistics

• It’s easy to do but hard for a layman

to explain how it works—instead it

takes an army of biologists,

physiologists, and others to explain

this “easy” skill.

• Language is very much the

same—its function is easy to master

(when you’re young), but hard to

explain.

• And, like walking, we have a lot to

gain by understanding it.
Rationale for Studying
Psycholinguistics
• The centrality of language in our
daily lives means that any disruption

to our ability to use it may be keenly

felt—the worse the disruption, the

more devastating the impact.

• This disruption can come as part of

aging, it can come from

developmental problems, and it can

come from damage to the brain (or

other body systems that impact our

ability to perceive or produce

language, such as damage to our

hearing).
Rationale for Studying
Psycholinguistics

• In all of these cases, the disruption

may be relatively small—perhaps

difficulty in finding the right word or

understanding very complex or

unusual language.

• But, it can also be quite

severe—from a complete loss of

nearly all language to a particular

difficulty with production, or

understanding even fairly simple

sentences.
Rationale for Studying
Psycholinguistics

• Of course, research on how this

breakdown occurs can help us better

understand how to help restore

language function.
• But even research on how language
processing works in a fully

functioning system is very important

because it can provide us with a

model of language processing that

can then be used to develop more

effective therapies for people with

disruptions to their language ability.

• So, by understanding how language

works and how we are able to use it,

we can understand a vital yet

complex part of our daily lives, offer

ideas for how to help people with

language disorders, and perhaps

even shed light on how we acquire,

comprehend and think.
What is
Psycholinguistics?

• What is psycholinguists?
• As the name suggests, it is a
branch of linguistics in which

someone studies any phenomena in

the intersection of linguistics and

psychology. But this does not really

answer the question.

• So, first—what is linguistics? It’s the
scientific study of language.

• Psychology? The scientific study of

human behavior and cognition (i.e.,

how we think).
What is
Psycholinguistics?

• The union of these two fields is

principally concerned with the
processing and knowledge

representations that underlie the

ability to;

• use language
• and how they relate to other
aspects of human cognition.
What is
Psycholinguistics?

In short, psycholinguistics asks the

question:
• How it is that people are able,
moment-by-moment, to produce and

understand language?

And, by extension,
• How do children come to have this
ability?
• How and why it is sometimes
impaired after brain damage?
Psycholinguistics:
Definition(s) Definitions:
• The study of the relationships
between linguistic behavior and
psychological processes, including

the process of language acquisition.

• Psycholinguistics or psychology of
language is the study of the

interrelation between linguistic factors

and psychological aspects.

• Psycholinguistics is the study of

how individuals comprehend,

produce, and acquire language.

Psycholinguistics and
Other Disciplines
• The term “psycholinguistics” is a

little bit misleading in that it minimizes

the contribution of about a half-dozen

other fields of scientific research.

• To truly get to the bottom of how

language works, we need expertise

not only from linguistics and

psychology but also from other

scientific fields such as neuroscience

and computer science.

Psycholinguistics and
Other Disciplines
• The study of psycholinguistics is a

part of the field of cognitive science.

• The whole endeavor of

psycholinguistics often finds a home

in the broader research field of

cognitive science—an

interdisciplinary field that addresses

the difficult question of how animals,

people, and even computers think.

Psycholinguistics and
Other Disciplines

• Psycholinguistics is also concerned

with psychological and

neurobiological factors that enable

humans to acquire, use, comprehend

and produce language. The discipline

is mainly concerned with the

mechanisms in which languages are

processed and represented in the

mind and brain.

• Modern research makes use of
biology, neuroscience, cognitive

science, linguistics, and information

science to study how the mind- brain

processes language, and less so the

known processes of social sciences,

human development, communication

theories and infant development,

among others.
Psycholinguistics:
Some Important points
• Psycholinguistics is concerned with

the cognitive faculties and processes

that are necessary in order for

grammatical forms of language to be

produced from a mental grammar

and the lexicon.

• It is also concerned with the

perception of these constructions by

a listener.

Psycholinguistics:
Some Important points
• Psycholinguistics stresses the
knowledge of language and the

cognitive processes involved in

ordinary language use.

• Psycholinguists are also interested

in the social rules involved in

language use and the brain

mechanisms associated with

language.
• Contemporary interest in
psycholinguistics began in the 1950s,

although important precursors existed

earlier in the 20th century.

The Scope of
Psycholinguistics
The common aim of psycholinguistics

is "to find out about the structures

and processes which underlie a

human's ability to speak and

understand language".
Psycholinguistics involves:
• Language processing - reading,
writing, speaking, listening and

memory
• Lexical storage and retrieval - how
are words stored in our minds and

then used.
• Language acquisition - how a first
language is acquired by children.
The Scope of
Psycholinguistics
(conti.)

Psycholinguistics also studies :

• Special circumstances - twins,

deafness, blindness, dyslexia and

brain damage.

• The brain and language - unique to

humans? Evolution and part of the

brain concerned with language.

• Second language acquisition and

use - Bilingualism, how a second

language is learnt.
Doing Psycholinguistics
Practically
• A psycholinguist studies the way
humans learn, understand, and use

language.
• Psycholinguists also examine the
effects that the use of language has

on human social dynamics; a

speaker's choice of words and the

manner in which he speaks, for

example, can lead listeners to infer

what personality traits the speaker

might possess.
Doing Psycholinguistics
Practically

• The field of psycholinguistics spans

several related topic areas, including

cognitive psychology, behavioural

neuroscience, and psychological

disorders.

• In addition, a psycholinguist might

find himself specializing in specific

areas of study, such as semantics,

phonology, and speech therapy.
Doing Psycholinguistics
Practically

• In general, a psycholinguist dissects

every aspect of human language and

attempts to produce practical

applications for his findings.

• An expert trained in the field studies

both written and spoken language,

the progression of words in a

statement, and the manner in which

an idea is expressed.
Doing Psycholinguistics
Practically

• She/he then applies existing

psychological theories to his/her

observation in an effort to gain a fuller

understanding of how people adapt

language for their purposes.

• The entire field can be broken down

into specific areas of interest, each

with its own uses in working towards

scientific and social progress.

Reference Book(s)

• Cowles, H. Wind. 2011.

Psycholinguistics 101.
• Warren, P. (2013). Introducing
psycholinguistics. Cambridge

University Press.