PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

Instructor: Wen-hui Sah 112-2, Spring 2024

Class: Wed. 9:10-12:00 (R 250302 Research Bldg.)
Office Hours: by appointment (R 820 Research Bldg.) E-mail: whsah@nccu.edu.tw

Course description
Psycholinguistics stands at the crossroads of linguistics, psychology, computer science and
neuroscience. This course aims to introduce basic issues in this interdisciplinary study that explores
how human beings use their languages. The following major topics will be covered in our discussion:
(1) language comprehension, (2) language production and (3) language acquisition.

Learning outcomes
This course provides a general introduction to the psychology of language. It (1) provides students an
overview of topics and important models in the field of psycholinguistics, and (2) help students
develop logical and critical thinking through discussion of problems, and writing of research paper.

References
(1) Books and on-line resource
Aitchison, J. (2004). The articulate mammal: An introduction to psycholinguistics, 4th ed. London:
Routledge.
Carroll, D.W. (2008). Psychology of language, 5th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning.
(PL-C)
Field, J. (2004). Psycholinguistics: The key concepts. London: Routledge.
Gazzaniga, M. &Mangun, G. (2014). The cognitive neurosciences, 5th ed. MIT Press.
Gernsbacher, M. A. (ed.) (1994). Handbook of psycholinguistics. San Diego: Academic Press.
Gianfranco, Denes. (2011). Talking heads: The neuroscience of language. Taylor & Francis
Gleason, J.B. & Ratner, N.B. (ed.) (2012). Development of language, 8th ed. New York: Macmillan.
Gleason, J.B. & Ratner, N.B. (eds.) (1998). Psycholinguistics, 2nd ed. Orlando: Harcourt Brace.
Harley, Trevor A. (2010). Talking the Talk: Language, Psychology and Science. New York, NY:
Psychology Press.
Harley, Trevor A. (2014). The psychology of language: From data to theory, 4th ed. New York, NY:
Psychology Press. (TPL-H)
Jay, T. B. (2003). The psychology of language. New Jersey: Pearson Education.
Kennison, Shelia M. (2019). Psychology of language: Theory and applications. Macmillan. (PL-K)
Ludden, David C. (2015). The psychology of language: An integrated approach. SAGE Publications
(TPL-L)
Ortega, Lourdes. (2009). Understanding second language acquisition. Oxford Univ Press.
Matthews, Danielle (ed.) (2014). Pragmatic development in first language acquisition. Amsterdam:
John Benjamins.
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Menn, Lise, & Dronkers, Nina F. (2015). Psycholinguistics: Introduction and Applications, 2nd ed.
Plural Publishing.
Rueckl, Jay G., Paz-Alonsoc, Pedro M., Molfese, Peter J., Kuo, Wen-Jui, Bicke, Atira, Frost,
Stephen,…, and Frost, Ram. (2015). Universal brain signature of proficient reading: Evidence
from four contrasting languages. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United
States of America (PNAS), 112 (50) 15510–15515. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1509321112
Sedivy, Julie. (2019). Language in mind: An introduction to psycholinguistics. Sinauer Associates.
Tomasello, M. (2000). The item-based nature of children's early syntactic development. In M.
Tomasello and E. Bates (eds.), Language development: The essential reading, (pp. 169-186).
Malden, MA: Blackwell.
Traxler, Matthew J. (2023). Introduction to psycholinguistics: Understanding language science, 2nd ed.
John Wiley & Sons.
Warren, Paul. (2013). Introducing psycholinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press. (InPsy)

(2) Films
BBC Brain story (VB 598.916248)
CSMI (https://www.indiana.edu/~cogfilms/): an online collection of movies showcasing various
themes in cognitive science
Human Language Series (VC 410 H918)
The Brain: Our universe within memory (Discovery Channel) (大腦與記憶 VB 508 465 V. 152)

(3) Chinese material

Gazzaniga, M. (1998). The mind’s past. 《大腦比你先知道》1999. 洪蘭譯.遠哲基金會.
Sacks, O. (1996). An anthropologist on Mars. 《火星上的人類學家》. 趙永芬譯.天下文化.
Sacks, O. (1996). The man who mistook his wife for a hat. 《錯把太太當帽子的人》孫秀惠譯.天下
文化.
Sacks, O. (2007). Musicophilia: Tales of music and the brain. 《腦袋裝了 2000 齣歌劇的人》 2008.
廖月娟譯.天下文化.

Grading
Attendance & Class participation 30%
Mid-term exam 15%
Oral presentation 10%
Written report 35%

2
 Syllabus

Date Content Assignment

2/21 Scope of psycholinguistic research PL-C: Ch1

2/28 Holiday

3/6 Psychological mechanisms PL-C: Ch 3 (pp. 46-59)

3/13 The science of language TPL-L: Ch 2

3/20 Perception for language InPsy: Ch 7

3/27 Perception for language InPsy: Ch 7; ‘Secret life of James Turber’

4/3 Holiday

4/10 Visual word recognition InPsy: Ch 9

Progress report of the term paper 1

4/17 Mid-term Exam

4/20 Visual word recognition InPsy: Ch 9; ‘Witty Ticcy Ray’

Progress report 2

4/24 How is speech planned and produced PL-K: Ch 4;

‘Music effects on phonological awareness’

5/1 How is speech planned and produced ‘漢字現形記’

Progress report 3

5/8 Guest speaker: Prof. Shawn Chang

5/15 Language development TPL-H: Ch 4 (pp. 104-145); ‘Wife for a hat’

5/22 Language development TPL-H: Ch 4 (pp. 104-145); Patricia Kuhl

5/29 Open

6/5 Oral presentation

6/12 Paper due by noon

6/19 Course-related online learning

Guideline for term paper

-Final oral presentation (25-30 minutes for each group)
-Final written reports (double-spaced; 9-12 pages, excluding title page, references and appendices)
-Format of filename: yeardate Groupx term paper Example: 20240612 Group 1 term paper