Introduction to

Psycholinguistics
Unit 1.2
LANGUAGE, SPEECH AND
COMMUNICATION
1.2

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
LANGUAGE, SPEECH AND COMMUNICATION

Is speech special? This question, frequently asked in

Psycho linguistics, can be interpreted in two ways:
• o Is language species-specific? Is it the human race alone that
has developed a system of communication which resembles
language?
• o To what extent is the language faculty separate from other
mental operations? To use a more precise term, is the language
faculty part of general cognition or not?
Dr. Shahid Hussain
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The domain of Psycholinguistics
3 Approaches…

In considering whether language is a skill peculiar to the human race,

three approaches are possible:
• 1. We can specify what we mean by 'language' and then attempt to establish if the
communication system of any other species fits our criteria.
• 2 We can establish whether other species are capable of acquiring speech or language.
• 3 We can try to establish how language evolved and how long it has been a property of
the human race and its ancestors.

At the outset, we need to distinguish between communication, language

and speech.
• The first includes the second and the second includes the third.

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
Communication

The term covers any means by which two individuals exchange

information.

While language is one type of communication, it is not the only

one.
• Consider, for example, the function of a set of traffic lights. They communicate
an instruction in symbolic form without relying upon language. All that is
necessary is that everybody who uses the traffic lights should have a
knowledge of the system and be aware that red ='stop' while green = 'go'.

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
… Communication
• Human beings can convey ideas and feelings by means of many
devices, among them hand signals, facial expressions, body language,
nods, smiles and winks.
• These paralinguistic techniques do not involve vocalization.
• However, there are other non-linguistic means of communication
which do: for example, grunts, groans, snorts, sighs and whimpers.

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
…Communication
Bear in mind that we can only classify such sounds as communication if the producer
intends by using them to express some kind of message.

Thus, snoring, though based upon sound, is not a form of communication.

• The examples just given are voluntary: they are under the control of the user.

Contrast laughter and sobbing which are usually triggered automatically and
therefore cannot be regarded as 'intentional' in the same way.

This is an important distinction when we come to consider animal communication.

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
ACTIVITY
• Consider ways in which the following might or might not represent
communication:
• a belch - a scream - a cough

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
Language - 4 Important Characteristics

o Language is voluntary.
• It is under our individual control.

o Language is symbolic.
• It represents something other than itself. The connection between the word ROSE and a multi-
petalled flower with a thorny stem is a purely arbitrary one. If all English speakers agreed to
change the word to DWORP or SMIDGE, it would not in any way change the nature of the
object that it represents.
• The critical factor is that the entire speech community agrees on the label that is attached to a
particular entity - thus enabling a speaker to transmit meaning to a listener who shares the
system. To this extent, language has something in common with the earlier example of traffic
lights: that system too is symbolic, with its arbitrary connection between red and stopping.

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
Language

Language is systematic.
• In terms of vocabulary, this means that words operate in sets, dividing up
an area of meaning between them.
• To give an example, in English we do not use the word AFRAID for the
whole range of types of fear because we have alternatives in TIMID or
TERRIFIED or SCARED.
• In terms of grammar, language is structure-dependent, with words
combining into phrases and phrases combining into sentences.
• We cannot regard a sentence as simply a string of words like beads in a
necklace, because words cluster together to form higher-level patterns.
Dr. Shahid Hussain
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The domain of Psycholinguistics
Language

Language operates in two different modalities:

speech and writing.
• Of the two, speech is regarded as primary.
• This is partly because it preceded writing historically; writing
is a by-product of speech.
• It is also because, in the life of an individual, reading and
writing are learnt as a consequence of having acquired
speaking and listening skills.
Dr. Shahid Hussain
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The domain of Psycholinguistics
ACTIVITY

Consider the following phenomena in

the light of these criteria:
•laughter - snoring - doodling - nods - winks -
traffic lights
•How can we say that they are not part of
language?
Dr. Shahid Hussain
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The domain of Psycholinguistics
Speech

Speech may be
characterized by the
fact that it involves
vocalization (though,
as we have seen, so
do other non-
linguistic forms of
communication such
as grunts and sighs).

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
Speech

Two factors determine the ability of the language user to produce

speech-like sounds:
• a The shape, size and position of the articulators that we use.
• Speech demands a complex interrelationship between our tongue, teeth, soft
palate, jaw and nasal cavity as well as the ability to flex our vocal cords at will.
• b The ability to breathe and utter sounds at the same time.
• Human beings are able to exercise much greater control over their breathing
than most other species'. This enables us to produce a flow of air from the lungs
upon which the articulators can operate freely without impeding the process of
breathing out.

Dr. Shahid Hussain

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The domain of Psycholinguistics
Speech
• Speech usually involves the communication of a message.
• However, there are two types of speech which we might regard as less 'meaningful'
than others:
• expletives such as
• Oh! to express surprise or Owl to express pain.
• To what extent can we regard these as 'words’?
• To what extent are they involuntary rather than intentional?
• phatic utterances such as
• Nice day! or All right?
• where we may not intend to communicate a specific meaning and may not anticipate any response.
• This form of speech is said by some to be a survival of the mutual grooming
which many animal groups engage in as part of a bonding process. It thus
plays an important part in discussions of how human language evolved.
Dr. Shahid Hussain
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The domain of Psycholinguistics
Conclusion

Having broadly distinguished communication, language and

speech, we have laid down a few pointers for later.
• o We can characterize the ways animals exchange information as
'communication'. But is there anything in the methods they use which can
be said to resemble 'language'?
• o Is there anything special about the human mind which accounts for the
fact that we have developed the particular form of communication that we
refer to as language?
• o Is there anything special about the human vocal apparatus that accounts
for the fact that we have developed speech and other species have not?
Dr. Shahid Hussain
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The domain of Psycholinguistics