Group Member 10 :

1. Chalisa Nadya (A1212

2. Safitri (A12120112)
3. Moh. Ali Akbar (A1212

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

1. The Meaning of Meaning

A. What is the definition of meaning?
The word ‘meaning’ in English is incredibly confusing. Meaning is the
concept, definition, or explanation of something. But if something is
“meaningful”, it has some important or significant concept, definition, or
explanation.
B. Meaning in Sentences
"It may justly be urged that, properly speaking, what alone has meaning is
a sentence. Of course, we can speak quite properly of, for example, 'looking up
the meaning of a word' in a dictionary. Nevertheless, it appears that the sense in
which a word or phrase 'has a meaning' is derivative from the sense in which a
sentence 'has a meaning': to say a word or phrase 'has a meaning' is to say that
there are sentences in which it occurs which 'have meanings'; and to know the
meaning which the word or phrase has, is to know the meanings of sentences in
which it occurs. All the dictionary can do when we 'look up the meaning of a
word' is to suggest aids to the understanding of sentences in which it occurs.
Hence it appears correct to say that what 'has meaning' in the primary sense is
the sentence."

 The Classical View

First, let us consider the long-established view (sometimes called the
classical view) that the meaning of a word can be broken down into a set of
components. Attempts have been made to draw up a list of universal meaning
components which would enable us to uniquely characterise any word in our
vocabulary. Thus, we can represent the meaning of the word SQUARE by
specifying that it must have (a) straight sides (b) equal sides and (c) right angles.
One of the best-known attempts to argue for componential analysis examined
the word BACHELOR; the experimenters (Katz and Fodor 1963)
suggested that the main sense of the word was uniquely specified by the
following:
 Consider the BACHELOR example in the light of the following (* indicates a
sentence [ (; Activity 1 that is semantically doubtful):
*The Pope is a bachelor.

Might we have to change the term [UNMARRIED]? To what? Will the new
term serve to categorise more words than [UNMARRIED] or fewer?

 Prototype Theory
Prototype theory, as developed by Rosch, has had repercussions in two
main areas of linguistics: lexical semantics and syntax. Word meanings are the
names of categories, and the meanings of many words display characteristic
prototype effects (fuzziness of category boundaries, degrees of representativity
of category members). Further areas of application have been semantic change,
and the structure of polysemy networks. The prototype approach does, however,
encounter problems in connection with theories of semantic compositionality.
Linguistic constructs, such as syntactic and lexical categories, also display
prototype effects. The application of prototype theory to the study of parts of
speech and syntactic constructions has been especially fruitful.

Prototype Theory: the underlining theory for prototype structures

“what kind of bird are you, if you cannot fly", said the little bird to the duck.
“what kind of bird are you, if you cannot swim", said the duck and dived.
Prokofier, Peter und der Wolf

Prototype theory, within the field of prototype semantics, originated in the mid 1970s with the
psycholinguistic research of Eleanor Rosch into the internal structure of categories. Its
revolutionary character marced a new era for the discussions on lexical meaning and brought
existing theories (such as the classical view& into question)

The above quote represents the essence of the prototypical conception of

the structures of categories/ people create categories of things and assign the
same name or label to things that are not exactly the same but similar. In the
example although the duck easily observes that the little bird which could be a
sparrow or a blackbird for instance could not swim and the little bird similarly
observes that the duck cannot fly, they still call each other bird. Entities such as
birds seem to share the same features such as animal, feathers, wings, laying
eggs, and so forth. Such features, however, do not allow a clear distinction of
other categories such as snakes, which lay eggs but are not birds. In this context,
the categoritation of penguin as bird --- since it shares few of the above features
with other ‘kinds’ of birds --- would remain unclear.
2. Models of Lexical Retrieval

Lexical retrieval is a process of language production that requires the ability to access,
select, and produce lexical items from the language according to the context and
communicative intentions of the speaker (Hartsuiker & Notebaert, 2010). It is possible
to distinguish two stages of lexical retrieval: 1) meaning-based lexical retrieval process
(choice of a lexical presentation); 2) form-based lexical retrieval process (retrieval of a
word form, selection of phonological segments, and syllabification) (Garrett, 1975).

An important distinction is often made between lexical access and lexical recognition.
In most models of how listeners and readers locate words in the lexicon, access
precedes recognition. The assumption is that, when we hear or see a word, we open up
the entries for a number of possible matches (= access). These remain active in the mind
until we are able to decide which of them is the correct one (= recognition).

Lexical access can be generally defined as the process by which speakers retrieve their
representations of words from their lexicon or ‘‘mental dictionary’’ (Altmann, 2001, p.
135; Finkbeiner, Gollan, & Caramazza, 2006, p. 153). Lexical recognition is the ability
of a reader to recognize written words correctly and virtually effortlessly. It’s
sometimes referred to as isolated word recognition because it entails a reader's ability to
recognize words individually.

Serial Models vs Parallel Models

Let us imagine that a reader comes across the word example in a text. How do they
match the word to a representation in their mental lexicon?

As we have already seen, the word is stored with others which share a similar form. One
way of conceiving of the lexicon might be as a mammoth mental dictionary, with
entries as follows:

exacerbate
exact
exaggerate
exalt
exalted
examination
examine
example
exasperate

A search model of lexical access would suggest that our reader looks up the EX-
entries and works through them until reaching a word which forms a perfect match to
the one on the page. The lexicon would not be very efficient if a reader had to go
through the words in the order shown above. Look at the words and suggest why.

A more efficient search model would be one that arranged the words by form, but also
took account of the fact that some words are more frequent than others, and therefore
more likely to occur in our reader's text:

exact
example
examine
examination
exaggerate
exasperate
exalted
exalt
exacerbate

This is the kind of approach favoured by Forster's search model (1976). In it, words are
arranged in bins according to similarity of form and according to modality (spoken vs
written). But those that are 'higher' in the bin (and therefore reached first by the
searcher) are the most frequent.
This kind of approach is serial - taking one word at a time. It makes few demands on
the processor, but is slow in terms of time. The assumption was that the human mind
worked a little like a computer (early computers were restricted to serial operations).
However, another possibility is that our minds are a great deal more sophisticated and
(thanks to the millions of neural connections of which they are composed) can process
words in parallel. A search for EXAMPLE might pull out a large number of similar
words and compare them simultaneously with the word on the page.

exact ↓ examine ↓ examination ↓ example ↓ exaggerate ↓ exacerbate ↓

These words are sometimes referred to as candidates and, in many models, are seen as
competing with each other to be the one that is selected.

Activation Models

A word is activated to the extent that the perceiver regards it as likely to be present on a
page or in an utterance. When we encounter a particular string of letters or sounds, we
access a number of possible word matches. They are activated to different degrees -
with the more likely ones (those that match most closely what is in the input) receiving
more activation than the less likely. Activation level can change as the language user
reads or hears more of the word - so some candidate words may have their activation
boosted by late-arriving information while others may have their activation depressed.
The process is a little like one of those modern fountains where various jets of water (=
candidate words) spurt up to different heights at different times. Finally, one word
receives enough supportive evidence for it to break through a threshold - it is recognised
as the only possible match for the word that is in the input.

Two important points about activation:

 It is not simply a reflection of how closely a candidate matches the input. It also
reflects frequency. Suppose we hear a word whose opening sounds are /ɪk'zæ/.
EXACT will receive greater activation than EXACERBATE because it is a much
more common word and therefore a more likely candidate.
  The activation principle allows us to account for instances where we make a
match that is less than 100 per cent precise. Suppose we read the word
exazerbate or hear somebody say the word shigarette. The words
EXACERBATE and CIGARETTE do not entirely match the signal - but they are
far and away the leading candidates, with the highest amount of activation. So,
we settle for them as the best fit.

It is important to realise that creating a set of candidates involves accessing the

candidates' lexical entries. This means that information about word meaning becomes
available. Some commentators argue that the information boosts the activation of
candidates that are semantically appropriate to the context and lowers the activation of
others. Others argue that to bring in meaning at this stage adds an enormous
complication, which might distract us from the task of weighing up the evidence of our
eyes or ears.

3. Memory and Language

Schemes that activate memory and cause common language reactions are significant for
understanding how the mind works. This process helps to track the flow of
conversation. There are five main memory parts:

 Short-term memory or working memory.

 Long-term memory.
 Sensory memory. This part is divided into the echoic and iconic memory. 
 Explicit memory, also known as declarative, can be subdivided into semantic and
episodic memory. 
 Implicit memory has components of procedural memory and priming effects.

To be sure, some situations may cause hesitance that a language is a tool that changes a
person’s fundamental goals, values, and beliefs. However, a bilingual person speaking
two different languages does not magically become two completely different people.
Instead, language creates a strong context that can draw various aspects of ourselves
forward.   

If a person chooses a language to learn, it is better to get familiar with its structure to
understand how native speakers think. Language is a reflection of people’s culture in
every country. Memory plays a significant role in forming communication.

Working Memory

Working memory is a large and complex construct that has been the focus of extensive
research. Richard Allen and colleagues (2006) refer to the “Multi-Store Model” of
working memory; memory processing that receives both visual and auditory input,
retains the information, and processes the information. This involves three components
of working memory (Baddeley, 2012; Allen et al., 2006):

1) Central executive: drives all functions of working memory

2) Visuospatial sketchpad: stores and processes visual and spatial input
3) Phonological loop: mentally perceives, stores, and aids in reproduction of the
sounds perceived in spoken words or indicated by written letters

The phonological loop component of working memory is commonly referred to

as phonological working memory; working memory that allows for processing sounds
and then doing something with those sounds such as successfully blending them
together to form a word. Phonological working memory supports a variety of skills
including vocabulary development, sentence and discourse processing, and acquisition
of reading skills (Perrachione et al., 2017).

Working Memory Capacity

The most important characteristic of Working Memory is that it is limited. There are
limits (a) to what it can store and (b) to the amount of processing it can undertake. On
storage, an important paper (Miller 1956) suggests that Working Memory is only
capable of holding about seven pieces of information (plus or minus two) at a time. This
means that it is under pressure:

 to chunk information (combining smaller units into larger ones); we might

remember an 8-digit phone number as 83 -42-76-18 instead of 83427618;
 to shed verbatim information and replace it with abstract propositions (one
complete idea instead of a number of words);
 to transfer important information to Long Term Memory before it decays.

On processing, Baddeley suggests that Working Memory is controlled by a Central

Executive which determines how, much attention a particular processing task demands
(Compare the different amounts of attention involved in calculating 2 + 3 and 13497 +
56832). Sentences like (a) and (b) above demand few attentional resources whereas
sentences like (g) demand more. Because our attentional capacity is limited, we may
even encounter sentences which exceed it - hence the problems we find in processing a
sentence such as: The man the dog the cat chased bit died.