Psycholinguistics is the study of the cognitive and psychological processes underlying language acquisition, production, and comprehension. It investigates how the mind processes language and deals with the relationship between linguistic behavior and psychological mechanisms. Psycholinguistics has several sub-disciplines including theoretical psycholinguistics, developmental psycholinguistics, neuropsycholinguistics, and experimental psycholinguistics. It seeks to understand how language is acquired and produced by users as well as how the brain works in processing language.

1. The Definition and Scope of
Psycholinguistics
Week 1
Psycholinguistics_P 11/10/2014 BI UNY_Ms. Siti Mahripah

2. Language as a Means of
Communication
Linguistics Psycholinguistics
components process
Language
Speaker Message Listener
Information
encodes decodes
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3. Linguistics
• Object: language
Psycholinguistics
• Object: speech
process
The structural
components of a
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language
Language as a
process

4. Origin of the term
The term psycholinguistics was coined in 1936 by Jacob Robert
Kantor in his book An Objective Psychology of Grammar and
started being used among his team at Indiana University,
But its use finally became frequent thanks to the 1946 article
"Language and psycholinguistics: a review", by his student
Nicholas Pronko,
where it was used for the first time to talk about an
interdisciplinary science "that could be coherent",
as well as in the title of Psycholinguistics: A Survey of Theory
and Research Problems, a 1954 book by Charles E. Osgood and
Thomas A. Sebeok.[
11/10/2014 Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti Mahripah

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Definitions
•It investigates the interrelation of language and mind in
processing and producing utterances and in language
acquisition. (Hartley, 1982)
•It deals directly with the processes of encoding and
decoding as they relate states of message to states of
communicators (Osgood and Sebeok, 1983)
• It is the study of language acquisition and linguistic
behaviour, as well as the psychological mechanism
responsible for them (Langaker, 1973)

6. Definitions (Cont.)
•It is concerned in the broadest sense with relation between
messages and the characteristics of the human individuals
who select and interpret them (Diebold, 1973)
•It is the study of relation between our needs for expression
and communication and the means offered to us by a
language learned in one’s childhood and later. (Fraisse,
1973)
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7. Definitions (Cont.)
• It is the study of language behavior : How real (rather than ideal)
people learn and use language to communicate ideas.
It asks questions such as:
1. How is language produced, perceived, comprehended, and
remembered?
2. How is it used for different communicative purposes?
3. How is it acquired?
4. How does it go wrong? How is it represented in the mind?
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8. Based on the definitions, here are some views on
psycholinguistics:
1. Psycholinguistics deals with language and mind
2. Psycholinguistics is directly related to the process of encoding and decoding of the
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code (language)
3. Psycholinguistics is an approach
4. Psycholinguistics investigates language, language use, and language change
5. Psycholinguistics discusses processes which are going on in the speaker and hearer’s
minds
6. Psycholinguistics focuses in the discussion of language acquisition and linguistic
behaviour

9. Sub-disciplines within Psycholinguistics
• Theoretical psycholinguistics
 language theories related to human mental processes in
using language (phonological, diction, syntax, discourse and
intonation arrangement)
• Developmental psycholinguistics
 the process of language acquisition (both L1 & L2)
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• Social psycholinguistics
 the social aspects of language, that language is a string of
thought and insights

10. Cont.
• Educational psycholinguistics
 the educational aspects in formal education: the role of
language in the teaching of reading, language proficiency
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• Neuro-psycholinguistics
 the relation between language and the brain: what
happens to language input and how output is programmed
and formed inside the brain
• Experimental psycholinguistics
 the act and effect of using language
• Applied psycholinguistics
 the application of all above subfields into other subjects

11. • how language is acquired and produced by users
• how brain works on language
• language acquisition
• the difference between children language acquisition and
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Scope
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language learning
• linguistic interference
• language development
• the role of motivation in foreign language learning

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The End
Thank you
Psycholinguistics_PBI UNY_Ms. Siti
Mahripah