psycholing

psycholinguistics

study of psychological and neurological factors enabling humans to acquire, use and understand langugage

4 basic fields covered by psycholinguistics

language comprehension

speech production

language acquisition

neurolinguistics

fields connected to psycholinguistics

SLA, education, health sciences, computational luinguistics, machine learning, AI, translation studies

characteristics of human language

hierarchal structure

infinitely creative

ability to express the full range of the soeaker’s experiences

structured

governed by arbitrary rules (grammar, syntax, morphology)

arbitrary in nature

symbolic (words=arbitrary symbols)

productive

operates in different modalities (spoke, written, sign language)

the different modalities of languagw

spoken (oral)

written

sign

communication

(largest) intentional act performed by a human agent with the purpose of causing some effect on another human agent

forms: music, language, danching, visual arts, road signs

language

((not necessarily) predominant) means by which humans communicate

its production, comprehension, and acquisition are based in complicated mental processes

speech

highly complex transmission system of lanaguage → has to be learned

one of the modes of langaueg

involves the rapic coordinated movement of speech agents to articulate sounds used to form meaningful words

speech agents

lips, tongue, palate of mouth, vocal folds, breathing

animals demonstrating features of language

honeybees

birds (bullinch x canary, chaffinch)

vervet monkeys

chimpanzees (nim chimpsky, washoe)

gorillas (koko, michael)

teaching apes human language

1960-70s

used sign language

washoe project

nim project (nim chimpsky)

nim chimpsky

chimpanzee raised like a human child in a human family - newborn chimp and newborn baby together

used sign language - over 100 signs - created new signs to describe unfamiliar things

washoe

chimp taught sign language - understood spoken english and sign and answered in sign

able to understand abstract concepts (joke, power of language)

adapts to new people

childlike behaviours/acquisitions

combined signs to desribe new experiences

koko

gorilla taught sing language

knew both sign language and spoken word - answer in sing

creating signs for words she didnt know the sign of

passing down langugage to offspring

neurolinguistics

primarily concerned with the role of anatomical and physiological structures in the production and comprehension of speech and language

interested in exploring where language functions reside in the brain, how the brain processes and produces language

information from studying brain activity and language impairment

early scientists studying the brain and language

johann schenk von grafenburg

franz jozef gall

pierre paul broca

carl wernicke

eric lenneberg

johann schenk grafenburg

german physician from the - pioneer of neurolinguistics

1st to point out that language disturbance is due to brain injury and not the paralysis of the tongeu

franz josef gall

neuroanatomist and physiologist

pioneer in the study of the localization of the mental functions in the brain

1st to theorize that language abilities might be located in particular areas of the brain

1st to piont out the difference between white and grey matter

always depicted with a head/skull - cranioscopy/phrenology

cranioscopy/phrenology

method to divine the personality and development of mental and moral faculties on the basis of the external shape of the skull

pierre paul broca

trained pathologist, anatomist and surgeon

studied the skulls of the homo sapians and neandethal man discovered in 1856

discovered that language articulation is located in one specific are in the frontal lobe of the left hemisphere - broca’s area

broca’a aphasia (ungrammatical speech, word retrieval problems)

discovered that the lateralization of language is loosely connected to handedness

commented on the plasticity of the young brain in response to trauma - young children’s ability to relearn speech after head trauma

carl wernicke

decribed another region of the brain associated with comprehension of spoken word - wernicke’s area

wernicke’s aphasia (fluent but nonsense speech, comprehension problems)

eric lenneberg

linguist and neurologist

pioneered ideas on language acquisition and language learning

considered the father of the “critical period“ - criticised

critical period

early period of child development where language developemnt happens rapidly in a nurturing environment, during this period brain damage often has no lasting coomunicative effect

supported by studies in extremely neglected children

highly criticized and debated

criticisms of the critical period theory

instead: sensitive/optimal period

disputed causes

varied duration

SLA - native like accents observed in adults → accent is not simply a biological constraint - affected by multiple factors (identity, motiation)

the human brain

paired organ, consisting of 2 hemispheres that seem identical but actually differ in form and function

composed of alternating white (nerve fibers) and grey (nerve cells) matters

utilizes 1/5 of the body’s blood supply whilw only 3,5 lb

areas labelled by functions

brain lateralization

hemisphere specialization

connected to handedness

majority of the population (70-90%) - left h language focus, the rest anomalous: either opposite or mixed - bilateral

we know about it due to experimental evidence

majority brain laterization

left: language, (not all functions), computation, logical reasoning

right: special reasoning, face recognition, music (→ some language functions eg porosody)

contralateral control

each hemisphere of the brain controls the opposite side of the body ha

handedness

righthanded people have left hemisphere language specialization

lefthanded and ambidextrous people have bilateral representation of language

vague term:

• the hand that performs faster/more precisely on manual tests

• the hand that one prefers to use regardless of performance

experimental evidence of brain lateralization

hemispherectomy - in removal of the dominant hemisphere in adults verbal output is severely affected

severed corpus callosum - lack of communication between hamespheres

dichotic listening

split brain experiments

wada tests

hemispherectomy

removal of a section of or one of the hemispheres

still used today - only in lifesaving situations

corpus callosum

nerve tract connecting the two hemispheres of the brain

severing the corpus callosum

still used treatment for severe epilepsy

stops the communication between the 2 sides of the brain

→ split brain

difficulties of studying people with brain damage

damage in one area can cause problems in others

lateralization can shift and change

dichotic listening

developed to study healthy brains

different stimuli in both ears at the same time → asked to listen to one and report on what they heard

they arent able to process the information in both ears at the same time - wont understand the words, topics language of the other side but will pick up on the nature of the noise and whether it is from a man or woman

the right ear (left hemisphere) processes words, numbers and nonsense syllables better

the left ear (right hemisphere) is better with music, human non-speech stimuli and visual spacial processing tasks

split brain reading experiment

patient stared at a dot and words flash on either sides

information (written words) gathered with the left eye cannot reach the language center of the brain → the patien says he didnt see the word - BUT can still pick the item out or draw it

split brain chimeric figures experiment

2 half faces put together woman’s on the left and man’s on the right - dot on forehead

patient stares at the dot

if the patient has to pick the faces out - woman

if the pationt has to describe the face - man

wada test

test during which they put one of the hemispheres to sleep temporarily

if the left is put to sleep - the patient cannot speak

if the right is put to sleep - the patient is generally abel to answer basic questions