英语语言学（教学课件）chapter9 Psycholinguistics.pptVIP

9.1 Introduction * Psycholinguistics is the study of the language processing mechanisms. It is concerned with the relationship between language and the human mind, for example, how word, sentence, and discourse meaning are represented and computed in the mind. * As the name suggests, it is a subject which links psychology and linguistics. The common purpose of psycholinguists is to find out the structures and processes which underlie a human’s ability to produce and understand language. But above all, psycholinguistics are interested in the acquisition of language: how children acquire their mother tongue. The study of the acquisition of language by children is often called developmental psycholinguistics. 9.2 Language Acquisition Many linguists feel that if we can understand the internal mechanism which enables children to learn language so quickly we shall have penetrated one of the deepest secrets of the mind. The psycholinguist Steven Pinker makes a strong case for considering the elements of linguistic knowledge to be innate. This is consistent with the Chomskyan concept of universal grammar: the idea that there is a common underlying structure to every language, the knowledge of which we are born with. Language acquisition refers to the learning and development of a person’s language. The learning of a native or first language is called first language acquisition, and the learning of a second or foreign language is called second language acquisition. It is shown by psycholinguistics that children’s use of language is rule-governed. For example, children frequently say tooths and mouse, instead of teeth and mice, and holded and finded, instead of held and found. These are examples of overgeneralization or overextension: the extension of a rule beyond its proper limits. Overgeneralization is a frequent phenomenon in language development. It can be found not only in syntactic usage but also in word meanings. Most psycholinguists believe that the intonati