PSICOLINGÜÍSTICA

TERM EXAM II: Topics

2011-10-15T11:59:00.000-07:00

First, second, foreign language acquisition (Armendáriz)
Scovel's "Acquisition: when I was a child, I spoke as a child"
Yule's "First language acquisition", "SLA/L"
Lightbown-Spada "Learning a first language", "Explaining SLL"
Williams-Burden "An introduction to educational psychology"

HOW LANGUAGES ARE LEARNED

2011-09-16T08:45:00.000-07:00

QUIZ III: Topics

2011-09-05T03:07:00.000-07:00

Chomsky's "A Framework for Discussion" and "The Research Program of Modern Linguistics"

The four questions for linguistic inquiry
Plato's problem and Descartes's problem, and Chomsky's answers to them
The language faculty
Universal Grammar: Principles and Parameters
Structure-dependency, binding, pro drop

Yule's "Animals and human language" (pp. 8-12)
First, second, foreign language acquisition (Armendáriz)
Scovel's "Acquisition: when I was a child, I spoke as a child"
Yule's "First language acquisition"
Lightbown-Spada "Learning a first language"
CLASS NOTES on the above mentioned topics

CESARE LOMBROSO: THE TIP WAS UNTIPPED!

2011-08-17T19:01:00.000-07:00

Read about Cesare Lombroso here.

TERM EXAM I: Topics

2011-07-22T05:05:00.000-07:00

· Linguistics as a science of language. Linguistic theory, linguistic paradigm, object of study and point of view. Units of analysis: morpheme, phoneme, lexeme, grapheme. Levels of linguistic analysis. Psycholinguistics and its relationship with psychology, linguistics, neurolinguistics, neurobiology.

· Saussure and structuralism. The linguistic sign. The diachronic and the synchronic. Langue and parole. Syntagmatic and associative (paradigmatic) relations. Signification and value. Mutability and immutability.

· Jakobson and communication. Functions of language.

· Benveniste and his théorie de l’énonciation. The formal apparatus of enunciation. Subjectivity in language.

· Bakthin and speech genres. The utterance and its aspects. The features of the Bakthinian utterance.

· GLOSSARY TERMS: linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, psychology, neurobiology, language, langue, parole, linguistic sign, grapheme, arbitrariness

CLASS SCHEDULE: August

2011-07-21T09:13:00.000-07:00

5: TERM EXAM I

10: Properties of language. Localization of language functions. Glossary terms (cont.).

Readings: Yule's "Animals and human language" (pp. 8-12), "Language and the Brain" (pp. 137-141).

12: Language acquisition. First, second, foreign language. Practice.

Readings: "Acquisition" in Crystal's Dictionary. "Language Acquisition: Research Methods" in Field's Psycholinguistics: The Key Concepts. First / Second / Foreign Language.

17 - 19 - 24 - 26: First language acquisition. Glossary terms (cont.).

Readings: Scovel's "When I was a child...". Yule's "First Language Acquisition". Lightbown/Spada "Learning a First Language". Glossary terms (cont.).

31: Second language acquisition. Glossary terms (cont.). QUIZ III.

SYLLABUS 2011

2011-06-04T14:39:00.000-07:00

Here's the 2011 syllabus.

BAKTHIN: The Problem of Speech Genres (Selections)

2011-06-02T04:04:00.001-07:00

Selections from "The Problem of Speech Genres"

QUIZ II: Topics

2011-05-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

Klages's "Structuralism and Saussure"
Saussure's "Immutability and Mutability of the Sign"
Jakobson's "Linguistics and Poetics" (pp. 3 to 8 - pdf file)
Terms: linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, neurobiology, psychology, grapheme.

CHOMSKY: LANGUAGE AND KNOWLEDGE

2011-05-24T06:50:00.001-07:00

Click here to get the book

CRYSTAL: DICTIONARY

2011-04-06T08:05:00.000-07:00

Get the file here

CLASS SCHEDULE 2011

2011-03-19T15:54:00.000-07:00

Wednesdays 2.20-4.20 pm

Fridays 2.20-3.40 pm

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS GLOSSARY

2010-09-24T08:24:00.000-07:00

Psycholinguistics The Key Concepts
John Field

SECOND LANGUAGE LEARNING

2010-09-20T15:41:00.000-07:00

Second Language Learning: Theoretical Foundations

M. Sharwood Smith

FIRST, SECOND, FOREIGN

2010-09-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

Please refer to this entry for further reading on

first, second and foreign language acquisition.

LANGUAGE ACQUISITION (BBC DOCUMENTARY)

2010-08-15T08:56:00.000-07:00

PSYCHOLINGUISTICS

2010-07-26T08:44:00.000-07:00

THE STUDY OF LANGUAGE

2010-06-18T14:56:00.000-07:00

Yule's The Study of Language

SYLLABUS 2010

2010-06-01T10:19:00.000-07:00

Syllabus 2010

BAKHTIN

2010-05-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

The Problem of Speech Genres

COURSE IN GENERAL LINGUISTICS (Excerpts)

2010-05-26T14:20:00.000-07:00

Excerpts from Saussure's Course

BENVENISTE

2010-05-19T16:36:00.000-07:00

Subjectivity in Language

The Nature of Pronouns

Problemas de lingüística general

JAKOBSON

2010-05-17T20:16:00.000-07:00

Linguistics and Poetics

SAUSSURE

2010-05-08T06:19:00.000-07:00

Structuralism and Saussure

Excerpts from Saussure's Course

THE LINGUISTIC CONTEXT

2010-04-08T16:47:00.000-07:00

"The Linguistic Context" by G. Finch

LINGUISTICS (Widdowson)

2010-04-06T17:00:00.000-07:00

"Principles and Levels of Analysis"

Whole book

SCHEDULE 2010

2010-04-02T08:53:00.001-07:00

Wednesdays 2.20-4.20 pm

Fridays 2.20-3.40 pm

PHRENOLOGY

2009-05-23T12:07:00.000-07:00

For further reading visit this Phrenology site.

PROPERTIES OF LANGUAGE

2009-05-10T13:10:00.000-07:00

DISPLACEMENT

"That rose garden on the other side of town that we visited last weekend"

Human language-users can refer to past and future time (temporal displacement), or to other locations (spatial displacement). This property allows the users of language to talk about things and events not present in the immediate environment. It enables us to talk about things and places whose existence we cannot even be sure of. We can refer to mythical creatures, demons, fairies, angels, Santa Claus, Superman, etc. It is the property of displacement that allows the human, unlike any other creatures, to create fiction and to describe possible future worlds.

ARBITRARINESS

"There is nothing in a TREE that prevents it from being called a LEAF, is there?"

There is no 'natural' connection between a linguistic form and its meaning, i.e. there is an arbitrary relationship between the linguistic signs and the objects they are used to indicate.

PRODUCTIVITY

"I just can't stop googling every term that crosses my mind these days!"

Novel utterances are continually being created. New situations arise or new objects have to be described, so the language-users manipulate their linguistic resources to produce new expressions and new sentences. This property of human language has been termed productivity (or 'creativity', or 'open-endedness') and this aspect is linked to the fact that the potential number of utterances in any human language is infinite.

CULTURAL TRANSMISSION

"Je suis français pero mis viejos hablan español."

We acquire language in a culture with other speakers. An infant born to Korean parents (who have never left Korea and speak only Korean), which is adopted and brought up from birth by English speakers in the U.S., may have physical characteristics inherited from its natural parents, but it will inevitably speak English. Through cultural transmission, language is passed on from one generation to the next.

DISCRETENESS

The sounds used in language are meaningfully distinct. For example, the difference between /b/ and /p/ is not actually very great, but when these sounds are part of a language like English, they are used in such a way that the occurrence of one rather than the other is meaningful. The fact that the pronunciation of the forms pack and back leads to a distinction in meaning can only be due to the difference between /p/ and /b/ in English.

DUALITY

Language is organized at two levels simultaneously. In terms of speech production, we have the physical level at which we can produce individual sounds, like /n/, /b/, and /i/. As individual sounds, none of these discrete forms has any intrinsic meaning. When we produce those sounds in a particular combination, as in bin, we have another level producing a meaning which is different from the meaning of the combination in nib. So, at one level, we have distinct sounds, and, at another level, we have distinct meanings. This duality of levels is one of the most economical features of human language, since with a limited set of distinct sounds we are capable of producing a very large number of sound combinations which are distinct in meaning.

These six properties may be taken as the core features of human language. There are properties but they are not uniquely human, such as:

VOCAL-AUDITORY CHANNEL USE: Human linguistic communication is typically generated via the vocal organs and perceived via the ears. Linguistic communication, however, can also be transmitted without sound, via writing or via the sign languages of the deaf. Moreover, many other species (e.g. dolphins) use the vocal-auditory channel.

RECIPROCITY: Any speaker/sender of a linguistic signal can also be a listener/receiver.

SPECIALIZATION: Linguistic signals do not normally serve any other type of purpose, such as breathing or feeding.

NON-DIRECTIONALITY: Linguistic signals can be picked up by anyone within hearing, even unseen.

RAPID FADE: Linguistic signals are produced and disappear quickly.

Adapted from
"The properties of language" in The Study of Language, George Yule, C.U.P., Cambridge, 1997.

ASSIGNMENT 1: A Questionnaire

2009-05-06T14:41:00.000-07:00

1. Find definitions for the following branches of linguistics: SEMANTICS - PRAGMATICS - SOCIOLINGUISTICS - HISTORICAL LINGUISTICS - STYLISTICS. Make sure you compile one definition from at least 3 (three) different sources (also record information as to the source).

2. Find at least 2 (two) more branches of linguistics. What do they study? (Do not include: Psycholinguistics - Grammar - Phonetics - Phonology).

3. For each of the branches in 1. and 2. find names of books (at least 2) that deal with the specific area, and their authors. You may use, for example, the search engine at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.

4. Build up a definition for PSYCHOLINGUISTICS. What are the two main areas of concern?

5. What is the relationship between PSYCHOLINGUISTICS and:
a) PSYCHOLOGY
b) LINGUISTICS
c) NEUROLINGUISTICS
d) NEUROBIOLOGY.

You may consult the links to the right.
The activity will be checked next Wednesday 13, May.
You may work in pairs.
The assignment will be assessed orally.

FIRST / SECOND / FOREIGN LANGUAGE

2007-08-25T07:38:00.000-07:00

The first language is a characteristic of the species: it allows the human being to establish identity links with their primary linguistic community. If a human being lacks a mother tongue, they cannot be considered to be "normal". This refers to the oral aspects of language, listening and speaking. We are not referring to reading and writing, which have been developed by some cultures, not all.

A second language is the language that must be learnt if the subject's language is different. The second language allows them to work and to study since there is a dominant language which is the current language of expression and which is different from the home language.

It is said the second language allows people to get to know about a culture which is also their own, though this is a rather controversial assertion since many people find themselves in a dead-end street without choice other than learning this language if they want to survive. There are degrees of acceptance of the dominant culture. This process is known as acculturation.

The foreign language for its part is the one that allows the subject to get to know about a culture which is not the subject's. As it is not in current use in the community, the contexts of use are "remote" as it were.

When it comes to learning the three types of languages, there are differences.

First language learning is biologically determined. In the literature, the terms acquisition, learning, development and growth are used interchangeably.

We speak of second language learning or L2 acquisition in the case of (1) adult immigrants who learn or 'pick up' the L2 in their new country, and in the case of (2) children of immigrants who grow up in the cultural environment of the L2. It is typical of both types of L2 acquisition that it takes place in the target language context and that the L2 must be learnt in order to survive in the target culture context. Another characteristic of L2 learning is that L2-learners mostly do not get systematic error correction by teachers but base their learning mainly on observation of what other speakers say and do (positive evidence). This is why we speak, in this context, of untutored or natural L2 acquisition. If learners receive instruction in language schools in the L2 country we speak of instructed or tutored L2 acquisition.

ARMENDARIZ, A. (2000) Language Acquisition and Learning. Santa Fe: UNL.

NOAM CHOMSKY

2007-06-24T14:29:00.000-07:00

American linguist and political activist Noam Chomsky was born in Philadelphia in 1928. After his early studies on linguistics with Zellig Harris at the University of Pennsylvania and a short stay in Harvard, Chosmky entered in 1955 the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, where he has been working ever since.

In the mid-60s, he actively disapproved of the American military intervention in Vietnam and was arrested while delivering a speech in an anti-war demonstration in Washington. Later he grew critical of America's foreign policy, particularly along the Pacific, Middle East and Central America. Chomsky lectured on linguistics and politics in many countries and has been awarded a great number of academic honors. He has been described as "probably the most important living intellectual".

Perhaps he is best known for his hypothesis that many language properties are innate, i.e. they result from human genetic programming and not learned out of experience. He started gaining acclaim by late 1950s, when his work played a major role in the transformation of linguistics, which was turned from a discipline limited to a small circle into a critical component of both human and cognitive sciences. His assertive criticism on structural linguistics and the related behaviourist psychology made for his reputation.

(Michael Payne, A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1997)

Language and Chomsky

2007-06-23T15:19:00.001-07:00

(Contrib. V. Raynald)

Noam Chomsky
Knowledge of a language: It’s Nature, Origin, and Use

Before 1950’s: the behaviourist position. Language learning as a matter of habit formation: “overlearning” /analogy drawing.

Mid-1950’s: the innatist position. Humans are biologically endowed to acquire language: the language faculty → Language Acquisition Devise (LAD).

Universal Grammar (UG)

UG is a theory of linguistics postulating principles and parameters that are universal to all languages: languages have a common structural basis which is innate to humans.

A person's syntactic knowledge can be modelled with two formal mechanisms:

- a finite set of fundamental principles that are common to all languages

- structure dependency

Example: I don’t speak French (*French don’t speak I)

- a finite set of parameters that determine syntactic variability amongst languages

- pro-drop parameter (from "pronoun-dropping")

Pro-drop languages, such as Spanish, are languages which allow for the omission of certain classes of pronouns.

Example: (yo) me voy a Inglaterra el año que viene

Non pro-drop languages, such as English, do not allow for the omission of such pronouns.

Example: I do not know the secret yet

Language and Benveniste (III)

2007-06-19T15:21:00.000-07:00

Two types of “we”:

Inclusive “we” → it clearly includes the “I” of the utterance

Example: We are happy with the results; it was a good teamwork (the speaker refers to himself and others)

Exclusive “we” → it does not include the “I” of the utterance

Example: We are destroying the environment (the speaker does not include himself. “Humans are destroying the environment”)

(contrib. V. Raynald)

Reading set articles

2007-06-10T09:54:00.000-07:00

Reading set articles:

a) The importance of the information we can gather out of the paratext (titles, references, pictures, etc.)

b) Skimming the article in search of paragraphs relevant to the specific point in the syllabus.

c) Selecting key words whose meanings should be made clear before moving on with the reading process.

Language and Benveniste (II)

2007-06-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

ENUNCIATION: it might be defined as the act of apprehending / grabbing / getting hold of the FORMAL APPARATUS OF ENUNCIATION.

time

“I” → message → “you”

place

In a speech act, the participants who are ACTIVELY involved in conversation (“I” and “you”) are the PERSONS (they are present) / the pronouns “he”, “it”, “they” are called the NON-PERSONS (they are absent).

E.g.: “I” (person) don’t like “museums” (non-person) at all.

In terms of the utterance process, language can be analyzed according to two perspectives:

DISCOURSE: use of “I” and “you” (personalization, subjectivity) / mainly present and future tenses / more active constructions

“I” ↔ “you” (intersubjectivity)

HISTORY: prevalence of the non-person / predominance of past tenses / more passive constructions.

(Contrib. V. Raynald).

BENVENISTE

2007-06-03T10:04:00.000-07:00

French linguist Émile Benveniste (1902-1976) gains recognition after his creative combination of historical linguistics and structuralism, which expanded linguistics into cultural theory. His major works are Problèmes de linguistique générale (1966) and Vocabulaire des institutions indo-européennes (1969). One of his most influential positions is based on a disagreement with Ferdinand de Saussure's arbritrariness of the linguistic sign. Focusing his attention mainly on the speaker, Benveniste rejected the trend in linguistics to treat language simply as a formal system. In this sense, his work had a significant influence upon Julia Kristeva's semiotics and her efforts to bridge the gap between linguistics and psychoanalysis.

(Michael Payne, A Dictionary of Cultural and Critical Theory, Oxford, Blackwell Publishers Ltd., 1997)

Language and Benveniste

2007-05-30T11:57:00.000-07:00

Émile Benveniste: the formal apparatus of enunciation

- Subjectivity in language (man becomes a subject through the use of language) ≠ language as a tool (man separated from nature). Language as discourse in action: the utterance process (act in which language occurs).

The apparatus of utterance involves:

an “I” who sends a MESSAGE to a “You” (positions which are interchangeable) at a particular time and place (CONTEXT). The speakers also resort to MODALIZATION by means of modal verbs, choice of words, intonation.

- The utterance process → the utterance product (remnants of the actual process). Reconstruction of the utterance process through traces / marks left in the utterance product.

Two types of linguistics signs:

FULL LINGUISTIC SIGN: the signified and signifier are complete.

HALF-EMPTY L. SIGN: the signified only realises when in the act of utterance. Examples: pronouns, demonstratives, some adverbials of place and time (here / there / yesterday / tomorrow, at the moment, now, etc).

(Contributor: Prof. V. Raynald)

Making a definition

2007-04-20T21:15:00.000-07:00

To build an appropriate definition when discussing issues in linguistics (as in most academic subjects) you should follow a scheme like

X is Y that (does) Y

that is, the term you are supposed to define should be explained by associating it with another term, related in nature but more general in scope and then specifying it by means of a "that" clause, which should include relevant information concerning the term under study.

Example:

LINGUISTICS is THE SCIENCE that STUDIES LANGUAGE.

Build your own definitions for:

1- LINGUISTICS

2- LANGUAGE

3- LINGUISTIC THEORY

3- PARADIGM

2006-06-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

JAKOBSON: PRACTICE

The following examples can be used to illustrate Jakobson's functions of language. Can you match the examples with the function they exemplify best?

1. Hugh Grant on Bridget Jones: "I like disaster girls, I always have done, I don't like anything too perfect. I like drunk girls, I like girls who've spilt things down their fronts. I like girls with big pants, the bigger the better. Up to the armpits!"

2. … (Adrock) A-d-r-o-c-k
I use the microphone like Picasso used clay
(MCA) I rock on the mic from here to Bombay
I give it my best and say come what may
…
(Adrock) I'm taking doody rhymes to a brand new height
I shine on the mic like UltraBright
Created a monster with these rhymes I write

3. The countries need to wake up and realise that genetic contamination is happening now and they must act in the spirit of the Biosafety Protocol and take responsibility for protecting crop diversity, which is vital to maintain security of food production," said Arnaud Apoteker, Greenpeace representative at the meeting.

4. Weather headlines TODAY: Rain in Scotland moving eastwards. The rest of the UK will see a mixture of sunny spells and showers.

5. From: Hal Lewis (hlewis26@home.com) Subject: FW: A.Word.A.Day--checkmate
Unfortunately, the first definition of checkmate in the 10/1/01 distribution is incorrect. There is a distinction between "defeated" and "unable to escape." The latter is a stalemate. If you are in a corner with a gun pointed at you, you are checkmated. If you are in a closet, and can't get out without being shot, you are stalemated. I imagine every chess player in the world will notice this.

6. i’m just a simple man looking for a good woman to walk beside me not behind me or in front of me. want one that can make decisions for us and is alright when i make them for us. I like just about everything there is to do, just can't do some off them now, had my right knee replaced in Jan 2001 so still get better from that. ok if you made it this far try me you might like me. hope to hear from you soon and good luck finding the one you want.

[Extracted from
www.uni-saarland.de]