I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics

LANGUAGE (Chpt 9) Dr. Sara Sereno I. Introduction to psycholinguistics II. Basic units of languageIII. Neuropsychology of languageIV. Language development / acquisition V. Non-human language

LANGUAGE (Chpt 9) Dr. Sara SerenoI. Introduction to psycholinguistics II. Basic units of languageIII. Neuropsychology of languageIV. Language development / acquisition V. Non-human language

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics A. What does it mean to study language? B. Competence / Performance various examples of language use C. Popular notions of language D. Properties of language

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics A. What does it mean to study language? Linguistics = structure of language phonetics, syntax, semantics, cross-language comparisons, language universals Psycholinguistics = processing of language understanding the mechanisms of language behavior e.g., normal adult comprehension and production of language; neurolinguistics; language acquisition; language in non-humans

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics A. What does it mean to study language? Socio-linguistics = social aspects of language Linguistic factors, such as ... voice pitch, pronunciation (dialect), word choice, intonation ... influence our judgements about the speaker’s: age, gender, geographical identity, socio-economic class, intelligence, personality, mood Examples: R’s in New York (Labov, 1966) Disney

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics B. Competence / Performance Competence = what one knows Implicit knowledge - knowing what’s “right” Explicit knowledge - explain in terms of formal rules Performance = what one does;how knowledge is used - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Various examples of language use: (1) pa-ba-sa (4) tag questions (2) wugs (5) “Can you pass the salt?” (3) wordness (6) grammaticality judgements

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics B. Competence / Performance Competence = what one knows Implicit knowledge - knowing what’s “right” Explicit knowledge - explain in terms of formal rules Performance = what one does; how knowledge is used - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Various examples of language use: (1) pa-ba-sa (4) tag questions (2) wugs (5) “Can you pass the salt?” (3) wordness (6) grammaticality judgements

WUG /wugz/ WUCK /wuks/

Wordness: For each row of 3 possible new words, which one will probably never make it : ( blick splunge rlight sbarm wumple turl mancer nserht crelurious inther iwhucr neen shace fring ngout

Tag Question = element attached at end of utterance; not a true question nor a full declarative statement; a way of asking for confirmation That was a horrible movie, wasn’t it? She’s been swimming, ______________? Jeremy wants to go dancing, ______________? You haven’t had any sleep, ______________? The man who was smoking died, ______________? Those friends of Maria’s that we don’t particularly like didn’t know, ______________? hasn’t she doesn’t he have you didn’t he did they

Tag Question formation rules... But first, background information about the (dreaded) VERB AUXILIARY DeclarativeVerb Aux. Jo has eaten well. HAVE Jo was acting bad. BE Jo ran yesterday. DO GRAMMATICAL TRANSFORMATION QuestionNegation Verb Aux. Has Jo eaten well? Jo hasn’t eaten well. HAVE Was Jo acting bad? Jo wasn’t acting bad. BE Did Jo run yesterday? Jo didn’t run yesterday. DO

Tag question formation rules: • 1. Copy the auxiliary of the main verb to the • right of the sentence. • 2. Make it negative if the original is positive • or positive if the original is negative. • 3. Add the pronoun that corresponds to the • subject in person, number, and gender. • Bob and Betty were laughing loudly, _____________? • That famous surgeon quit, _____________? • She’s not leaving already, _____________? were n’t they she n’t did is she

“Can you pass the salt?” Conversational inference (cooperation) there are rules that govern how language operates in a wider social context maxim of relevance - fill in the blanks

Can you pass the salt? + please Please can you pass the salt? Can please you pass the salt? Can you please pass the salt? Can you pass please the salt? Can you pass the please salt? Can you pass the salt please?

Grammaticality Judgements John is difficult to love. It is difficult to love John. John is anxious to go. It is anxious to go John. What he did was climb a tree. What he thought was want a sports car. What are you drinking and go home? Mary was near the stream, was it? * * * *

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics C. Popular (but incorrect) notions of language Prescriptive linguistics Language change is corruption Some languages are more advanced than others “Received pronunciation” is better than dialects “Do’s” and “don’ts” of language use Language acquisition Children learn language by imitation

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics D. Properties of language Human Language = flexible, symbol-based and rule-based mode of communication that permits conveyance of any kind of information. Its properties include: Creative– a limitless # of thoughts can be expressed in a limitless # of ways. Structured– sounds are combined into words, and words into sentences according to rules (i.e., grammar). hierarchical

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics D. Properties of language Meaningful– ideas are conveyed by individual words and how they are organised into sentences. Referential– it refers to and describes things and events in the world. Interpersonal / Communicative– it has a social function. Ex: The cat ate the dog. The dog ate the cat.

LANGUAGE (Chpt 9) Dr. Sara Sereno I. Introduction to psycholinguistics II. Basic units of languageIII. Neuropsychology of languageIV. Language development / acquisitionV. Non-human language

LANGUAGE (Chpt 9) Dr. Sara Sereno I. Introduction to psycholinguistics II. Basic units of languageIII. Neuropsychology of languageIV. Language development / acquisitionV. Non-human language bonobo chimps & Kanzi video

LANGUAGE (Chpt 9) Dr. Sara Sereno I. Introduction to psycholinguisticsII. Basic units of languageIII. Neuropsychology of languageIV. Language development / acquisition V. Non-human language

II. Basic Units of Language A. ~5,000 languages phonemes  morphemes  sentences  conversations (sounds) & words B. Phonemes = elementary sounds of speech • phonemes are NOT letters to, too, two, through, threw, shoe, clue, view • vowel & consonant phonemes • combining phonemes is rule-governed • 11-144 phonemes in any given language English has ~ 40; Hawaiian has ~16

“free” { { “bound” II. Basic Units of Language C. Morphemes = smallest meaningful unit of lang. • can be a word, word stem, or affix (prefix, suffix) word: help, love word stem: spir, ceive, duce prefix/suffix: re-, dis-, un- / -less, -ful, -er • derivational & inflectional morphemes derivational – change the grammatical class V + -able = Adj (adorable, believable) V + -er = N (singer, runner) inflectional – grammatical markers V + -ed = past tense (walked) N + -s = plural (cows)

II. Basic Units of Language C. Words • Content vs. function words Content words = carry the main meaning nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs Function words = grammatical words articles (a, the, this), conjunctions (and, but), prepositions (in, above) Psychological reality of the content-function word distinction in aphasia selective impairment of content (Wernicke’s) or function words (Broca’s aphasia) • Stroop (1935)

GREEN RED RED BLUE BLUE GREEN BLACK BLACK BLUE GREEN RED BLUE BLACK GREEN BLACK RED RED BLUE BLUE GREEN NAME THE COLOUR OF THE INK

Aoccdrnig to rscheearh at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn’t mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnat tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit a porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.

homographs homophones II. Basic Units of Language C. Words (con’t) • Ambiguity 1 word form, but 2 (or more) word meanings Ex: bank (N-N, “money” vs. “river”) watch (N-V, “clock” vs. “look”) bass (N-N, “guitar” vs. “fish”) 2 word forms, but 1 pronunciation Ex: sail/sale, right/write Generally unaware of ambiguity... even though it is quite pervasive even though it affects behaviour (RT, etc)

II. Basic Units of Language D. Sentences • Syntax = the rule-governed system for grouping words together into phrases and sentences • Sentences introduce a concept that they are about, the subject (or noun phrase), and then propose something about that concept, the predicate (or verb phrase). Ex: “The boy hit the ball.” doeractdone-to subjectpredicate

II. Basic Units of Language D. Sentences (con’t) • Same deep structure, different surface structure “The boy hit the ball.” (active) “The ball was hit by the boy.” (passive) • Same surface structure, different deep structure [The French bottle]NP [smells.]VP [The French]NP [bottle smells.]VP THEY are boring. VISITING THEM is boring. Cf. ambig. figures in perception: 1 form, 2 interpretations “The French bottle smells.” “Visiting relatives can be boring.”

Necker cube

Headlines New obesity study looks for larger test group Reagan wins on budget, but more lies ahead Man struck by lightening faces battery charge Enraged Cow Injures Farmer with Axe Milk Drinkers Are Turning to Powder Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half British Left Waffles on Falklands Dealers Will Hear Car Talk at Noon Miners Refuse to Work after Death Beating Witness Provides Names Squad Helps Dog Bite Victim Kids Make Nutritious Snacks

Headlines Stolen Painting Found by Tree Prostitutes Appeal to Pope Red Tape Holds up Bridge Deer Kill 17,000 Teenage Prostitution Problem is Mounting Child Stool Great for Use in Garden Shouting Match Ends Teacher’s Hearing Man Robs then Kills Himself Lung Cancer in Women Mushrooms Mondale’s Offensive Looks Hard to Beat Tuna Biting off Washington Coast Chinese Apeman Dated

Q: What’s the difference between a Scotsman and a rolling stone? A: A Rolling Stone says “Hey you get off of my cloud!” and a Scotsman says “Hey McLeod get off of my ewe!”

II. Basic Units of Language D. Sentences (con’t) • Syntactic ambiguities “She hit the boy with the big stick.” “She hit the boy with the runny nose.” Interpretation depends on structural preferences (certain constructions used more often, favoured), as well as the prior discourse context.

LANGUAGE (Chpt 9) Dr. Sara Sereno I. Introduction to psycholinguistics II. Basic units of languageIII. Neuropsychology of languageIV. Language development / acquisition V. Non-human language Broca’s aphasia video

I. Introduction to Psycholinguistics