The Nature of Psycholinguistics
1. The History of Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics
is the composite between two study; psychology and linguistic. This origin of
the science was already exist at the beginning of 20th century when Germany
psychologist, Wilhelm Wundt stated that language can be explained with the
psychological basic principles. In the continent of America, link between
language and psychology also start to grow. This development can be divide into
4 stages:
a. Formative
Stage
In
the middle of 20th century, John W. Gardner, a psychoogist from Carnegie
Corporation, America start to gave an idea about hybrid these two sciences. Afterwards,
this idea was developed by John B.Carrol who organize the seminar in Cornell
University in 1951 and continued in 1953 in Indiana University. The result of
this meeting made a strong reverbrate between linguists and psycologist. So
that many research was did toward the link between these two sciences. At the
time, the term of Psycholinguistics is used at the first time. Opinion about
language relativity by Benjamin Lee Whorf (1956) and language universal by
Greenberg (1963) are the first creation in psycholinguistics sector.
b. Linguistic
Stage
The
development of linguistic science, which since oriented to behaviorism and then
change into mentalism in 1957.
c. Kognitive
Stage
In
this stage, psycholinguistic start to aim at cognitives and human biological base in achieving
language. In this stage, people also start to talk about biology character to
language, they begin to feel that biology is base where the language grow.
d. Theory
of Psycholinguistics Stage
In
this final stage, psycholinguistics is not only divide into psycho and
linguistics, but also menyangkut another studies such as neurology, philosophy,
primatology, and genetic.
2. The
Nature of Psycholinguistics
Psycholinguistics
are the study which learns mental processes in using language. Psycholinguistics
learn 4 prominent topic:
a. Comprehension,
is mental processes which is passed by human so that they can catch what they
say and understand what it means.
b. Production,
is mental processes inside which make us can uttered
c. Biological
base and neurological which make human
can using language
d. Achieving
Language, is how children achieve their language.
3. The
Nature of Language
Language
is an oral symbol system which is used by the members of speech community for
communicate and interact each other, based on the culture which they have
together.
4. The
Component of Language
Language
has three components:
a. Syntax,
is study which links with words, phrases, and sentences.
b. Phonology,
is study which links with sounds.
c. Semantic,
is study about the meaning.
5. Pragmatics
Pragmatics
refer to the study of the meaning in interaction between a speaker to another
speaker. Pragmatics also watch another aspects in communicating such as world
knowledge, relationship between speaker and listener or third person and speech
acts.
1. Vocalization
The Development of Speech Production
I. Vocalization, Babbling, and Speech1. Vocalization
- Vocalization refers to uttering speech sounds by making a variety of sounds, crying, and gurgling for infants.
- Infants everywhere seem to make the same variety of sounds, even children who are born deaf.
- The ability and propensity to utter such sounds thus appear to be unlearned.
- Babbling means producing sounds by using repeated syllables (syllabic reduplication).
- Most of the syllables are the basic consonant +vowel type (baba, momo), some consist of closed syllables of the simple consonant + vowel + consonant variety (panpan).
- Children ordinarily begin to babble on seventh month.
- Babbling is non-intentional in the sense that particular sounds are not under central cognitive control, means the infant does not intentionally make the particular babbling sounds which occur.
3. Speech
- The case of meaningful speech is sounds must not be uttered at random but must match previously heard sounds which are conventionally associated with certain objects, needs, and so forth
- Speech is necessary that the child discover which sound is created by which speech articulators (mouth, tongue, vocal cords, etc.).
- In the meaningful speech phase, it appears that consonants are acquired in a front-to-back order, where front and back refer to the origin of the articulation of the sound. Thus /m/, /p/, /b/, /t/, and /d/ tend to precede /k/, /g/, and /x/
- Vowels seem to be acquired in a back-to-front order, with /a/ and /o/ preceding /i/ and /^/.
II.
Early Speech Stage:
1. Naming
1. Naming
- Children can be said to have learned
their first word when
- They are able to utter a recognizable speech form, and when this is done
- In conjunction with some object or event in the environment.
- Naming refers to when children use single words to refer to objects.
- First words have been reported as appearing in children from as young as 4 months to as old as 18 months, or even older. On the average, it would seem that children uter their first word around the age of 10 months.
- The naming of objects is one of the first uses to which children put words, e.g ‘mama’ is said by the child when the mother walks into the room. However, naming may be preceded by words which accompany actions, such as ‘bye bye’ in leave-taking.
- One word for one meaning
2. Holophrastic
- Holophrastic means when children use single words to express complex thoughts which involve the objects. A young child who has lost its mother in a department store may cry out ‘mama’ meaning ‘i want mama’. Or a child may point to a shoe and say ‘mama’ meaning ‘the shoe belongs to mama’
- One word for complex meaning.
3. Telegraphic
- Telegraphic means when children become aware that adding more words will improve communication, e.g ‘tummy hurt’ is more effective than just ‘hurt’ and ‘tummy’.
- Around 2 years of age or so children begin to produce two and three words utterance.
- Child’s utterance features:
- Variety of purposes and semantic relations
- Low incidence of function words
- Close approximation of the language’s word order
- Syntactic vs semantic analysis
4. Morphemic
- Morphemic means when children begin to add function words (preposition ‘in’ and ‘on’, articles ‘the’, ‘a’, and ‘an’, the modals ‘can’, and ‘will’, and the auxiliaries ‘do’, ‘be’, and ‘have’) and inflections (the plurals /s/ on ‘cats’ and /z/ for ‘dogs’) to their utterances
Later
Speech Stage: Rule Formation for Negatives, Question, Relative Clauses,
Passives, and Other Complex Structures
1. Negation
Formation
In
learning to produce the negations, the child must learn a number of different
things.
a. Where
to insert the negative marker.
-
If the verb is ‘be’
then NEG is placed after the copula ‘be’ form. Thus, ‘Kim is NEG happy’ becomes
‘Kim is not happy’
-
If the verb is not
‘be’, then ‘not’ is placed before the verb. Thus, Kim not want + PAST some
candy
b. When
and Where to insert auxiliary ‘do’
-
Insert ‘do’ when the
verb is one other than ‘be’. Thus, we get Kim do not want + PAST some candy
-
‘do’ is not inserted if
there is a modal (will, can) or auxiliary (be, have) present, as in ‘Kim will
not want to go’
c. When
auxiliary ‘do’ is used, then the tense form the verb is shifted to the
auxiliary ‘do’. Thus, from Kim do not want + PAST..., we get Kim do + PAST not
want some candy. Then, lexicalization Kim did want some candy.
d. Lexical
Concordancesmust be made in the case of the negative, e.g ‘some’ must change to
‘any’ so as to yield the grammatical ‘Kim did not want any candy’.
e. Optionally,
AUX + NEG (‘did +’not’) can be contracted to ‘didn’t’. This would provide us
with Kim didnt want any candy.
According
to the classic research of Klima and Bellugi (1966) and others who later
replicated their work, the being acquired in three main periods, are:
a. Period
I
In
the earliest period, a negation marker (NEG), in the form of ‘no’ or ‘not’ is
placedat the front of an affirmative utterance (U). Thus we see utterances
typically of the form, Neg + U (‘No Fall’).
b. Period
II
In
this second period, the negative marker tends to appear internally within the
utterance rather than outside it as in the previous period, and the auxiliaries
‘do’ and ‘can’ appear with the negation marker.
c. Period
III
In
this third period, the period before perfect negatives are formed, the copula
‘be’ and the modal ‘will’ appear with negation and imperative negatives are
formed with ‘do’ rather than the simple negative (‘don’t touch the fish’ as
opposed to ‘touch the snow no’). Only a number of relatively minor problems.
After
this period, it isi only a matter of months before most of the problems in
negative marking are successfully dealth with, although children may make
occasional mistakes for years later.
2. Question
Formation
a. Yes-No
Question
the
formation of Yes-No Questions involves declarative sentences which have a
copula ‘be’, modal, AUX, etc. must have that itemi the front of the sentence,
for example,
-
Copula ‘be’ is fronted
‘Bobby can go to the
store’, Can Bobby go to the store ?’
-
Modal is fronted
‘Mary is singing now’
and ‘Is Mary singing now ?
-
AUX is fronted
‘Kim wanted some candy’
and ‘Did Kim want som candy ?
b. WH
Question
The
WH question is so-called because of the similarity of the initial sound of the
various question words: who, what, where, when, how, why, etc. making WH
questions involves a high degree of complexity which the child must recognize
and internalize:
-
‘The girl jumped on the
table’ and ‘who jumped on the table ? (WH for Subject NP)
-
‘The girl hit the boy’
and ‘who (m) did the girl hit ? (WH for Objet NP)
-
‘The monkey will be on
the table’ becomes ‘where will the monkey be ? (Modal fronted to follow WH)
-
‘The monkey is sitting
on the table’ becomes ‘where is the monkey sitting ? (UX fronted to follow WH)
The
acquisition of question forms follows a basic pattern for children. The first
period of question acquisition is thus marked by the use of rising intonation,
which may be used with single words or with phrases such as ‘Sit Chair ?’,
‘Ball Go ?’ the next phase consist of the use of WH questions which are simply
tacked on to the beginning of an utterance in a similar pattern to negaion:
‘where my mittens?’, ‘why you smiling?’. The final stage consists of the
gradual emergence of tag question with, at first, no negation on tag, e.g
‘he’ll catch cold, will he?’ and then, final emergence of the correct form, e.g
‘we had fun, didn’t we?’
The
passive occurs so rarely in children’s spontaneous speech that researchers
usually resort to analysing the child’s comprehension of the passive form or
eliciting production through imitation tasks.
d. Other
problems
-
Structures with two or
more verbs
Limber
(1973) analysed the emergence of these forms as they began to appear around the
age of 2 or 3 years. Almost all of these complex form consists of clauses that
are attached to the end of utterances. Later, WH clauses appear with abstract
adverbials. The adverb ‘when’, ‘where’, and ‘how’ emerge before the nouns that
they replace.
-
Verb problems
Carol
Chomsky (1969) found that some complex grammatical structures may not be
acquired until quite late, even at the age of 10 or 11 years. She look at the
application of the minimal distance pincipal (MDP). When children use the MDP, they
sometimes apply it incorrectly depending on the verb in the main clause.
Another verb which causes the same problem is ‘ask’. Children often can’t
distinguish between ‘ask’ and ‘tell’.
The Development of Speech Comprehension
1. Fetuses
and speech input
-
The ear of the fetus is developed enough
to send sounds to the brain is unknown
-
the effects of the mother’s voices on
the fetus’s intrauterine listening may explain post-birth listening preferences
of the neonate for the mother’s voice and for the language the mother spoke
while pregnant.
-
3-day-or younger infants be able to
differenciate between Mother’s voice and another woman’s voice.
-
Locke (1993) suggests that the learning
of the mother’s voice may actually have occured, not prenatally, but within the
first 12 hours after birth when the mother was talkng to the newborn.
2. Newborns
(Neonates) and Speech Input
-
The Fetus may have been affected by the
vibrations from the mother’s voice that reached its developing ears through the
body tissues.
-
This ability to distinguish the language
spoken by the mother could be ascribed to intonational differences between the
languages which the fetus receives.
3. Speech
Comprehension Occurs without Speech Production: The Case of Mute-Hearing
Children
-
People such as these may be born with
cerebral palsy or some other abnormality that prohibits them from articulating
speech.
-
Person who are mute but hearing can
develop the ability to comprehend speech without their being able to produce
speech, so long as their basic intelligence is intact.
4. In
Normal Children Speech Comprehension Develops in Advance of Speech Production.
-
The children are unable to utter words
or sentences for the purpose of communication without gaining an understanding
of the speech first could be otherwise.
-
The Comprehension of language precedes
production does not mean a child must understand all of the language before
being able to produce something. Rather, progress goes bit by bit
-
It should also be noted that the two
systems of comprehension and production do not develop separately for the
normal child.
5. Relative
Paucity of Comprehension Studies
Most
of the language acquisition studies have been concerned with the development of
speech production. The reason for this is simple: production studies are easier
to do. Comprehension can only be inferred on the basis of relevant behaviour.
Consequently, those researchers testing comprehension have had to rely on
indirect methods.
The Relationship of Speech Production, Speech Comprehension and Thought
Speech Comprehension Necessarily Precedes Speech Production- In learning any of the world's languages, the child must first be able to comprehend the meaning of the language before they themselves can produce it.
- Children first need to be exposed to utterances with a clear connection to the articles referred to before they themselves can begin to say such utterances.
- Unless the sounds are used in a meaningful context that is suitable for those sound forms.
- Speech comprehension precedes and is the basis of speech production.
- The meanings that underlie speech comprehension are concepts that are in a person's mind.
- The meaning of a word may be conveyed through the descriptive use of other words.
- Thought is independent of language, including as it does ideas, feelings, perceptions, emotions, etc.
The Case of Parentese, Baby Talk, Imitation, Rule Learning, Correction, Learning Abstract Words, and Memory and Logic
Parentese and Baby Talk
1. Parentese
1. Parentese
Parentese is the
sort of speech that children receive when they are young. Parentese is also
referred to as “Motherese”,”Caregiver Speech”,”Adult-to-Child Language. The
child receives input from many sources – mother, father, siblings, relatives,
friends, etc.
Characteristics
of Parentese
a.
Immediacy and Concreteness
The speech which parents and others use in talking to children has a
number of distinctive characteristics which evidently aid language learning.
b.
Grammatically of Input
Generally, the speech directed to children is highly grammatical and
simplified. Ungrammatical sentences are found to occur but rarely
c.
Short Sentences and Simple Structures
Speech directed to children by adults also tends to consist of short
sentences with simple rather than complex structures.
d.
Vocabulary : Simple and Short
The vocabulary typically used by adults is simple and restricted and has
simplified phonology and structure
e.
Exaggerated intonation, pitch, and stress
Adults exaggerate intonation and
use a slower tempo and fequently repeat or rephrase what they or their children
say. Additionally, adult speech to children refers more to the context of the
conversation.
f.
Older Children too adapt their speech
Not only adults but children tend to use simplified speech in talking
with younger children.
g.
Father vs Mother Speech
Fathers
tend to employ different pragmatic approaches in the speech they
use with children. For example, fathers more often wait for children to
initiate conversations control through directives and imperatives and
use more
difficult vocabulary. Father Bridge Hypothesis states that the child is
forced to make more adjustments towards more complex use of speech as he
or she must make greater changes in order to communicate.
2. Baby Talk
Baby talk is a
form of Parentese but with its own
characteristics. While parentese uses vocabulary and syntax, though simpler
than that addressed to other adults, baby talk involves the use of vocabulary
and syntax that is overly simplified and reduced.
a.
Vocabulary
Most Baby Talk involves modifications in vocabulary. There are already
established words like “bow-wow” (dog), “pee-pee” (urine), and “choo-choo”
(train) in English. The main sound structure of such words tends to be
dominated by a Consonant + Vowel syllable unit which is often repeated.
b.
Syntax
Syntax plays a less prominent role in baby talk than does vocabulary.
When they do, their utterances are strikingly similar to those in the
children’s telegraphic stage of speech production.
c.
Should baby talk be used ?
Wether baby talk should or should not be used is sometimes a concern of
parents, with intensity of concern varying from country to country.
Imitation, Rule Learning, and Correction.
Imitation, Rule Learning, and Correction.
1.
The Object of Imitation
Imitation means
that the child copies and repeats aloud the words which he or she hears. Through
imitation, children learn how to pronounce sounds and words and they seem to
enjoy imitating the sounds which they hear. However, it must be keep in mind
that there is an obvious limitation, which is that imitation can apply only to
speech production and not to speech comprehension. Besides, imitation is
important for developing the articulation of speech sounds.
2.
Productivity by Rule
-
Children commonly produce ungrammatical words (such
as sheeps, mouses, and gooses, regarding the PLURAL and goed, comed, falled,
and breaked, regarding to PAST)
-
Similarly, children utter such ungrammatical
sentences such as No heavy and No the sunshine, regarding the Negative and When
we can go? And he is doing what? Regarding the Question.
-
Children cannot be imitating such speeh because
no one says these things for the child to copy
3.
The Frequent Futility of Correction.
-
Grammatical corrections are relatively rare with
respect to number of deviant utterances that a child actually produced, it is
reasonable to conclude that correction does not play an important role in
grammar learning.
-
It is worth noting that correction typically
takes the form of corrected repetition of the child’s utterance. This may not
be helpful because, in order to improve, the child must: 1) note the difference
between the child’s own utterance and that of the parent, 2) determine what the
nature of the error is, and 3) figure out a way to permanently change his or
her grammar or strategies so that it yields the parent’s utterance in the future.
-
Most parents are not interested in the
ungrammatically of the utterances of their children. Rather, they are more
interested in the truth value, social appropriateness, or cleverness of what
their children say.
Learning
Abstract Words
-
When acquiring the meanings of words, children
begin with the concrete and go on to the abstract. They begin with the physical
objects and direct activities then move to relations and statives. Soon
following will be words involving mental experiences and relations. Later come
complex abstract ideas.
-
How might the abstract words be learned? First
the child must take note of when such words are spoken by others and the
situations in which they occur.
-
After a number of certain words (spoken by
others) and certain feelings are experienced together, the child will have
enough information to make a guess at which sound form relates to which
feeling.
-
Words like ‘lie’ and ‘guess’ must also have
articular environmental situations and mental states for the child to bring
together. These will be more difficult to identify than feelings because they
involve pure (non-feeling) ideas. The child will have to make logical
inferences from complex situations in order to extract such ideas.
-
Children are forever hypothesizing about the
speech that they hear and seeking confirmation about their hypotheses.
-
Even though the connection may be made between
the sound form and the idea, it takes time for the child to learn the full
range and restrictions of the word in relation to the concept.
-
The use of metaphor too will help children to
comprehend abstract concepts.
Memory and Logic
in Language Learning
Memory
-
In the course of learning to identify the words
of the language, devising rules for their use, and relating speech to the
environment and mind, the child utilizes a phenomenal memory capacity. The
child must remember a multitude of particular words, phrases, and sentences,
along with the contexts, both physical and mental in which they occured.
-
If children did not remember many of the words,
phrases, and sentences they heard, they would have little basis for discovering
abstract meanings and rules.
-
Two basic types of memory operate in language
learning: associative learning, where a connection is formed between an object
and the sound form name of that object, and episodic memory, where whole events
o situations are remembered along with phrases and sentences that others have
spoken. Such types of memory are essential for determining the semantics of
syntactic structures such as the Negative, Question, etc., and for the
development of politeness.
Logic
1.
Children use inductive logic
-
Even in the early grammatical phase of learning
basic morphemes, children must use an inductive analysis. This type of
analysis, where: 1) there is a search for characteristics in speech , and then
2) those caracteristics are related to objects, situations, and events,
represents the essence of the use of inductive logic.
2.
Young Children use deductive logic
-
The childs’ production of speech, even in the
early years, reflects a great deal of conceptualizationand thinking on the part
of the child.
-
Such an advanced level of conceptual development
may surprise many of us, especially some Piagetian theorists, who relying on
such limited notions as ‘conservation’, believe that deductive logic develops
after the age of 6 years.
Sign Language: A True Language without Speech
A Formal Criterion for a True Language
-
Sign language is a true language because the language allows a signer
to comprehend and produce an unrestricted number of grammatical sign
sentences. This feat can be accomplished with a limit number of signs
(vocabulary) and a system (syntax and semantics)
An Informal Criterion for a True Language
- Informal Criterion must allow for a difference in the physical means of communication: signing rather than speech.
Complete and Incomplete Sign Language
- Signers of such sign language can indeed communicate in sign whatever is expressed in speech.
-
Other sign languages may be incomplete syntactically. Such incomplete
sign languages are typically found in developing countries, although in
even some developed nations, sign language may suffer from deficiencies.
Speeds of Signing and Speaking Sentences are Comparable
-
The speed at which signers produce sentences in a signed conversation
tends to be the same as that at which speakers produce sentences in a
spoken conversation.
1. Stock Trading
2. Betting at a Race-Track in Britain
3. Music
4. Sports
5. Television
Gestures of Hearing People Are Sign But Do Not Form a Language
Before considering the essentials of sign language, it will be useful to examine a related means a communication that is used by hearing persons; gesturesGestures Without Speech
- Gestures using arms, head, torso
We use gestures to communicate a variety of types of messages. Gestures are often similar but seldom universal. Coming upon another community's gestures may lead to confusion for an outsider. Most gestures are specific to cultural, linguistic, or geographic areas.- Facial Gestures
Facial movements are used in everywhere to convey a wide range of emotions and feelings.- Iconic Gestures
The kinds of gestures having a close relationship between gesture and meaning are called iconic gestures. There are meaningful, but more abstractly iconic gestures as well.- Specialized communities and their gesture
There are also restricted gestures which are known and used by small groups. these are typically to be found in specialized fields of work.1. Stock Trading
2. Betting at a Race-Track in Britain
3. Music
4. Sports
5. Television
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