1. BASIC APPROACH TO PSUCHOLINGUISTICS
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
It is the study of psychological processes involved in language. Language activity
reveals fundamental things about the mind and how it deals with perceptions, feelings
and intentions.
•Speaking and Listening
Are tools that people use in more global activities. They are used to convey facts, ask
for favors or make promises. Other people listen to receive this information. These
actions are: casual conversations, negotiations, other social exchanges.
•Speaking and listening also tell us about social and cultural activities.
e.g Why don’t you go for a walk, it’s a nice day?
Psycholinguistics traditional concerns:
-Comprehension: The mental processes used when people listen to, comprehend and
remember what they hear or read.
It is an active and dynamic process. We comprehend, understand speech, store and
remember information. E.g. Are you thirsty? Do you want a glass of water? She is
offering me water because she thinks I’m thirsty or she is inviting me to come in.
The final goal of comprehension is understanding.
Multilevel analysis: -Phonological analysis: The construction of an appropriate
segmentation of the incoming signals. This has the purpose of
recognizing words.
-morphological identification: The individual identifies strings of
sounds as constructing words. The words are identified in their
features.
-syntactic analysis: The individual has to analyze phrases and
sentences. He/she has to give the correct functional interpretation
to each constituent. E.g. John is eager to please / John is easy to
please.
-lexical analysis: This process is important in order to scan the
possible meaning of words. After scanning the possible meanings,
we choose the one that best fit in the context of the text being
processed.
-semantic-syntactic analysis: The receiver has to assign the
appropriate semantic case role to the participant, and the events
represented in the sentence: e.g. The key opened the door (the key
