Lecture: Psycholinguistics Professor Dr. Neal R. Norrick _____________________________________

1. Psycholinguistics Universität des Saarlandes Dept. 4.3: English Linguistics SS 2009 Lecture: Psycholinguistics Professor Dr. Neal R. Norrick_____________________________________

2. 4.2 Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomena Thinking on Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT) phenomena begins with James (1890) James speaks of “a gap that is intensively active” in consciousness when we try to recall a forgotten name. Meringer and Mayer (1895), Fromkin (1973) kept personal catalogues of error types to gather natural data.

3. Brown and McNeill (1966) collected intuitions on remembering in diary studies, e.g. unable to recall the name of the street on which a relative lives, one of us thought of Congress and Corinth and Concord and then looked up the address and learned that it was Cornish.

4. Brown and McNeill also induce TOT states, by reading definitions of uncommon words to subjects, who then answer questions about their search for the missing word, e.g. subjects asked to identify the target word sextant based on a dictionary definition “A navigational instrument used in measuring angular distances, especially the altitude of sun, moon and stars at sea.”

5. Burke et al. (1991) write, “When a TOT occurs, a lexical node in a semantic system becomes activated, giving access to semantic information about the target word, but at least some phonological information remains inaccessible.” Subjects in the TOT state often report that a word related to the target comes repeatedly and involuntarily to mind, yielding ‘blockers’,‘interlopers’ or ‘persistent alternates’, e.g. sexton or sextet for sextant

6. Burke et al. (1991) developed an experimental task, using prompts like those in a trivia game presented on a computer, where subjects typed responses, e.g. What is the old name of Taiwan? target: Formosa foils: Taipei, Canton, Ceylon The foils often acted as blockers for the target word

7. They then asked questions like: “How familiar do you think the word is?” “How certain are you that you can recall the word?“ “What is the first letter or group of letters in the word?” Burke et al. (1991) identify a semantic system or network of nodes connecting concepts • the concept chastity is connected with “is a virtue,” “take a vow of” etc • the concept baker with “bake bread” “get up early” “sell cakes” “knead dough” etc

8. Compare scripts of Schank and Abelson (1977), cognitive models of Lakoff (1987): Cognitive model for chastity would identify prototypes for the virtue like saints, and distinguish characteristics like “is a virtue” from linguistic constructions in which the word chastity occurs such as “take a vow of chastity.” Cognitive model for baker would identify prototypes for profession like the owner of the bakery at the foot of the hill.

9. Burke et al. (1991) say one word may prime, i.e. facilitate recognition of, another word, the activation of nurse facilitates activation of doctor because priming spreads and summates via these many shared connections. Cognitive processes recoded in diary studies and lab experiments differ from TOT searches in real conversation, e.g.

10. 1 Helen: in Hammond, north Hammond. Junior Toy Company. 2 they used to make toys, little tricycles and scooters and everything. 3 David: and where was it? 4 Helen: I don't remember the street. 5 Hoffman? 6 No. 7 it was a little beyond right here, you know, 8 it wasn't right in north Hammond. 9 t was around that street that turns into Illinois, 10 there when you go to the cemetery. 11 here's a tavern on one side and a VFW on one side. 12 forget the street. 13 David: Gosselin? 14 Helen: Could be, I don't know. 15 I don't know, 16 but that's where Junior Toy was in the low corner there.

11. Helen expresses her forgetfulness at line 4 with “I don’t remember the street.” • She takes a guess at the name in line 5, but immediately rejects the guess in line 6. • She begins an extended description of the area in terms of landmarks in lines 7-11. • She concludes, “I forget the street” at line 12, but David offers a guess of his own, since he’s familiar with the local neighborhood. • Helen expects help with name or at least assurance that David can identify the place.

12. Storytellers often name landmarks and major streets, not phonetically similar words. Note references to cemetery (l. 10), tavern and VFW (l.. 11) Description “in the low corner” implies that the teller can visualize the scene. So why not search corpora for natural instances of TOT?

13. 4.3 Discourse, frames, prototypes Cognitive linguists look at discourse contexts where words occur, e.g. if, for an item like roof, The house needs a new roof Then "house has a roof" is part of discourse frame Consider also frame effects: We saw an old house. The roof was in need of repair.

14. Consider typical collocations and metaphors: she has no roof over her head - for 'no house' we're finally under one roof - for 'in the same house‘ Moreover, Rosch and her co-workers have shown: • some properties are more salient than others • some members of a category are more typical

15. it may be impossible to define certain words without exemplification, e.g. colors, fruits, games etc instead of: "a fruit is the edible part of a plant etc" we find: "a fruit is like an apple, a peach or a banana" • word meanings and categories are generally not defined by features or propositions, but by prototypes

16. Testing for prototypes A. Ask subjects to identify the most typical bird:

17. B. Ask subjects for typical statements about birds,e.g. A bird was singing outside my window A bird flew down and caught a worm etc

18. C. Then substitute different bird names into the statements and ask how well they fit: A robin/eagle/chicken was singing outside my window A robin/eagle/chicken flew down and caught a worm

19. D. Test for speed of verification of identity statements A robin/eagle/chicken/penguin/bat is a bird

20. Prototype Effects: prototype: A trout is a typical fish marginal: A tadpole is a kind of a fish non-member: Their daughter is a regular fish Note: real members don't fit here: *This trout is a regular fish

21. Prototypical verb meanings extend: • The kid runs around the house • The pavement runs around the house • The rainwater runs down the spout • The Mississippi runs from Minnesota to the Gulf • Peter climbed a ladder • The plane climbed to 30,000 feet • The ivy climbed the fence • The temperature climbed to 30° C • Judy climbed down into the well

22. 5. First Language Acquisition Natural acquisition with no special learningnecessary critical period resulting from a combination of factors: • development of connections between nerve cells • myelination of nerve cells

23. lateralization of brain functions • dominance of left hemisphere • corresponding development of motor skills • general cognitive stages of development (Piaget)

24. 5.1 Developmental sketch Age Language General (months) 9 babbling crawling 10 first words standing, precurrent, maintained claps hand, (ba)nana(na) for holds spoon 'banana, food, mama'

25. Age Language General (months) 11 5-10 recurrent words first steps, fulfills requests like: recognizes bring me the blue ball pictures in show me the big red dog books 12 5 distinct vowels starts walking 5 distinct consonants

26. Age Language General (months) 13 recognizable words running, daddy nein ball climbing furniture allgone 14 imitations: horse, train simple puzzles reduplications: turns book pages choochoo byebye taktak ‘clock’

27. Age Language General (months) 16 recognizes own name points to himself: 20+ words Where's Nicky? 18 vocabulary explosion climbs stairs 2-word units: without rail ducky allgone Nicky haben

28. Age Language General (months) 20 3-word units: hangs on monkey Nicky cookie haben bars, points to also: eyes, nose, mouth haben Nicky cookie

29. Age Language General (months) 22 verb + particle: lock up/ dramatic deck zu play, 4-word units: stuffed Mami Auto fahren kauft animals, dolls Inni gute Nacht sagen

30. Age (months): 24 Language General verb endings: Inni spuckt bisschen kicks soccer ball statement: Nicky auch essen plays hide-n-seek question: Nicky auch essen, ja? draws details: command: Nicky auch essen ears, tails, wheels word-formation: cutter ‘knife’ auskleben ’tear apart’ umwärts

31. Age (months): 26 Language General participles: Mami ist weggegingt draws objectively das ist runtergefallt recognizable figures, recognizes colors comparison: Pferdchen ein kleineres Mond grösser als Daddy Monologues/ Mami kommt darein, tic-tac stories: Danke, Post schickt Daddy

32. Age Language General (months) 27 future orientation: sings melodies Let's build a castle I'll put it in 28 recursive structures: counts to 5 Ich weiss nicht, wen recognizes letters: der Deckel verloren hat N, C, O questions with when, how

33. Age Language (months) 30 conditionals: ich suche, ob ich den Hasen finde Timmy ist traurig, wenn das Osterhäschen hier schläft plans: I want to read a book about a story

34. Age Language General (months) 32 first real narrative: builds Legos It was a wooden lamby draws people and it was on the floor and house in a barn with chimney and they took it home and windows and they washed it and it wasn't ugly

35. Age Language General (months) 34 reports on TV program: learns to Plötzlich kamen zwei peddle trike Krokodile und haben das Kälbchen ge'essen reports on activities: I'm pretending this is a castle

36. (continued: 34 months) explains actions: I break it that I can make it new predicts: It's gonna be real beautiful, you're gonna love it

37. Age (months): 36 Phonetics • voiced th: initial okay in the this etc • medial v in other • voiceless th: initial s in sing • final f in both • vocalizes final l and r • mispronunciations: amimals, cimamon, pasketti

38. Morphology • double plurals: mens, feets, mices • double preterites: sawed, standed • regularized preterites: goed, sitted • reverse word-formations: popcorner, mowgrasser Syntax • negation: I see it not, That doll sits not right • questions: What it did? What the lady said? • counting: 1 2 3 4 5 6 20 14 fiveteen 16

39. Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) as standard measure of first language development as opposed to age

40. 5.2 Natural order of acquisition: 5.2.1 "Why mama and papa?“ Jakobson's order for phoneme acquisition • in babbling, children produce all kinds of sounds and sound combinations; many children produce imitations after babbling • but around age 2, children narrow their sound repertory and begin to produce sounds of their language in fixed order

41. order reflects an attempt to create the clearest possible set of distinctions at any given point, within the given physiological limits • this order of acquisition also reveals parallel • between different languages • most salient distinction is between Vowels (V) and • Consonants (C)

42. Vowels are characteristically open and resonant: • the prototypical V is a • Consonants are characteristically closed and obstruent: • stops are prototypical Cs • the prototypical stop is p • the prototypical syllable is CV: maximizing the C-V distinction, a child's first syllable should be pa •  given children's tendency to reduplication, • a child's first real word should be papa

43. the first division within the class of Cs is that between oral and nasal; the nasal counterpart of bilabial p is m •  maximizing the p-m distinction and reduplicating, • the child's second word should be mama • (actually initial nasals often appear first, because • of the association with sucking; and mama is • often first word recorded, because of the • centrality of mother for the child)

44. major divisions within the class of Vs are those between front and back, high and low, spread and open; the vowel most distinct from a along all these parameters is i  again maximizing the a-i distinction (and reduplicating), the child's next words should be pipi and mimi

45. extending the pattern of Vs, always seeking to maximize distinctness, the child should move to a triplet: a u i

46. after the Cs p and m , the child usually acquires t , then the third voiceless stop k and so on: • p m t k • child moves on to ever larger patterns with increasing numbers of distinctive features

47. only when child controls the individual consonants can they occur together in 2-consonant clusters: • then word-initial clusters like pl- and st- precede • final clusters like -lp and –st • later come initial 3-consonant clusters like • spr- and str- • and then word-final 3-consonant clusters like • -rst and -sks • of course, kids don't learn sounds in isolation, but only in words and syntactic structures