Chapter Six Language Processing in Mind

Chapter SixLanguage Processing in Mind

1. Introduction • L is a mirror of the mind in a deep and significant sense. • The study of L & mind aims to model the workings of the mind in relation to L.

1.1 Definition • Psycholinguistics: investigating the psychological reality of linguistic structures. • Cognitive P: making inferences about the content of the human mind • Experimental P: empirical matters

1.2 Major strands of P • L comprehension: How do people use their knowledge of L, and how do they understand what they hear or read? • L production: How do they produce messages that others can understand in turn? • L acquisition: How L is represented in the mind and how L is acquired?

2. L comprehension 2.1 word recognition 1. Cohort theory: as soon as people hear speech, they start narrowing down the possible words that they may be hearing.

2. Frequency effect: the ease with which a word is accessed due to its more frequent usage in the L. • Lexicon is partially organized by frequency. 3. Recency effects: the ease with which a word is accessed due to its repeated occurrence in the discourse or context.

4. Cotext: We recognize a word more readily when the preceding words provide an appropriate context for it. • Semantic association network

2.2 Lexical ambiguity • All the meanings related to the word are accessed. • Only one meaning is accessed initially.

2.3 Syntactic processing 1. The syntactic structure is built as soon as possible rather than waiting to see what the whole string of words is.

2. Syntactic ambiguity • Different was that words can be fit into phrases. • Ambiguous category of some of the words in the sentence

3. Minimal Attachment Theory: people initially construct the simplest syntactic structure when interpreting the structure of sentences.

2.4 discourse interpretation • Discourse, text, affect sentence and word-level interpretation. Sentences can be interpreted literally or figuratively. • Schemata and drawing inferences • Schema: a pre-existing knowledge structure in memory typically involving the normal expected patterns of things.

Eg. Apartment for rent. $ 500. • I stopped to get some groceries but there weren't’t any baskets left so by the time I arrived at the check-out counter I must have looked like a juggler having a bad day.

A: Would you like a coffee? B: Yes, please. … B: No and no. A: Right.

一天，我在看中央三台的中国音乐电视。我正看得津津有味的时候，老妈回来了说：“这是谁啊？”当时正是龙宽九段在唱歌。我就说：“龙宽九段。”这时，老妈一本正经的问：“九段？下围棋的啊？她还能唱歌啊？”一天，我在看中央三台的中国音乐电视。我正看得津津有味的时候，老妈回来了说：“这是谁啊？”当时正是龙宽九段在唱歌。我就说：“龙宽九段。”这时，老妈一本正经的问：“九段？下围棋的啊？她还能唱歌啊？”

3. Lexical ambiguity • Are you engaged ? • My friend drove me to the bank. • They passed the port at midnight. • Please give me a camel.

The clerk (entering) :A re you engaged? • Augustus:W hat business is that of yours? However, if you will take the trouble to read the society papers for this week, you will see that I am engaged to the Honourable Lucy Popham, youngest daughter of. . . • The clerk: That isn’t what I mean. Can you see a female? • Augustus: Of course, I can see a female as easily as a male. Do you suppose I am blind?

4. Syntactic ambiguity • John painted the car in the garage.

Jack asked the teacher who won the first prize. • Tom or Dick and Henry will go. • I don’t teach because teaching is easy for me. a. Because teaching is easy for me, I don’t teach. b. I teach, not because teaching is easy for me.

5. Pragmatic ambiguity • There is a fly in my soup. • Today is Sunday. ——“Do you enjoy sitting beside me?”she asked coldly. ——“Oh, no, ”I said. ——“W ell, you are no t w anted here. ” (W. E. B. Du Bo is,“O n Being Crazy”)

周朴园:我听人说你现在做了一件很对不起自己的事情。周朴园:我听人说你现在做了一件很对不起自己的事情。周　萍: (惊) 什———什么? 周朴园: (走到周萍的面前) 你知道你现在做的事对不起你的父亲么?并且———(停) ———对不起你的母亲么? 周　萍: (失措) 爸爸。周朴园: (仁慈地) 你是我的长子,我不愿意当着人谈这事。 (稍停,严厉地) 我听说我在外边的时候,你这两年在家里很不规矩。周　萍: (更惊恐) 爸,没有的事,没有。周朴园:一个人敢做,就要敢当。周　萍: (失色) 爸! 周朴园:公司的人说你总是在跳舞场里鬼混,尤其是这两三个月,喝酒,赌钱,整夜地不回家。周　萍:哦, (放下心) 您说的是— 周朴园:这些事是真的么? (半晌) 说实话! 周　萍:真的,爸爸(红了脸) 。

Chapter Six Language Processing in Mind