语言学教案Chapter 6 Language Processing in Mind

Chapter 6 Language Processing in Mind

6.1 What is Psycholinguistics

6.1.1 The Definition of Psycholinguistics

6.1.2 Branches in Psycholinguistics

6.1.3 Related Terms

6.2 The Relationship between Language and Thought

6.2.1 Early views on language and thought

6.2.2 The Relation between Language and Thought

6.3 Language Comprehension

6.3.1 The Comprehension of Words

6.3.2 The Comprehension of Sentences

6.3.3 The Comprehension of Texts

6.4 Language Production

6.4.1 Speech Production

6.4.2 Written Language Production

6.1 What is Psycholinguistics

6.1.1 The Definition of Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics is the study of language in relation to the mind

Psycholinguistics is viewed as the intersection of psychology and linguistics, which studies the ways we acquire, produce and comprehend languages.

6.1.2 Branches in Psycholinguistics

There are mainly two branches in psycholinguistics: cognitive psycholinguistics which studies the continuity of language with the workings of the mind in general and seeking to ground a theory of psycholinguistics in account of cognition and experimental psycholinguistics which is the investigation through experiment of the psychological mechanism for the production and understanding of speech.

6.1.3 Related Terms

Psychology of language deals with general topic concerning the relationship between language and thought.

Psychology of communication is the study of both verbal and non-verbal communications from the psychological point of view.

6.2 The Relationship between Language and Thought

6.2.1 Early views on language and thought

1. Plato suggested that thought was the soul’s discourse with itself. In other words, thought and language were identical. This is the monistic.

Aristotle argued that mankind could not have the same language and that language was put signs of psychological experiences. Too much evidence existed to contradict the monistic view.

(1)“I don’t know how to express my ideas with words.”

(2)Animals’ lack of language does not p revent them from thinking.

(3)The deaf-mute is able to think but could not speak the language of his own community.

(4)There are other channels for communicating our thoughts besides language like music

and sculpture.

2. Whorfian-Sapir Hypothesis

The hypothesis was proposed by the American anthropologist and linguist Edward Sapir and later his student, Benjamin Lee Whorf. It has two major thoughts: linguistic determinism and linguistic relativity, which may be summarized as follows:

1) One’s thinking is complete ly determined by his native language because one cannot but perceive the world in terms of the categories and distinctions encoded in the language.

2) The categories and distinctions encoded in one language system are unique to that system and incommensurable with those of other system.

6.2.2 The Relation between Language and Thought