Lecture: Psycholinguistics Professor Dr. Neal R. Norrick _____________________________________

1
Lecture Psycholinguistics Professor Dr. Neal R.
Norrick_____________________________________

• Psycholinguistics

• Universität des Saarlandes
• Dept. 4.3 English Linguistics
• SS 2009

2

• 4.2 Tip-of-the-Tongue Phenomena
• Thinking on Tip-of-the-Tongue (TOT)
• phenomena begins with James (1890)
• James speaks of a gap that is intensively
• active in consciousness when we try to recall a
• forgotten name.
• Meringer and Mayer (1895), Fromkin (1973) kept
• personal catalogues of error types to gather
  natural
• data.

3
Brown and McNeill (1966) collected intuitions on
remembering in diary studies, e.g. unable to
recall the name of the street on which a
relative lives, one of us thought of Congress
and Corinth and Concord and then looked up the
address and learned that it was Cornish.
4
Brown and McNeill also induce TOT states, by
reading definitions of uncommon words to
subjects, who then answer questions about their
search for the missing word, e.g. subjects
asked to identify the target word sextant based
on a dictionary definition A navigational
instrument used in measuring angular distances,
especially the altitude of sun, moon and stars at
sea.
5

• Burke et al. (1991) write, When a TOT occurs, a
• lexical node in a semantic system becomes
• activated, giving access to semantic information
• about the target word, but at least some
• phonological information remains inaccessible.
• Subjects in the TOT state often report that a
  word
• related to the target comes repeatedly and
• involuntarily to mind, yielding
  blockers,interlopers
• or persistent alternates, e.g.
• sexton or sextet for sextant

6
Burke et al. (1991) developed an experimental
task, using prompts like those in a trivia game
presented on a computer, where subjects typed
responses, e.g. What is the old name of
Taiwan? target Formosa foils Taipei,
Canton, Ceylon The foils often acted as
blockers for the target word
7

• They then asked questions like
• How familiar do you think the word is?
• How certain are you that you can recall the
  word?
• What is the first letter or group of letters in
  the word?
• Burke et al. (1991) identify a semantic system or
  
• network of nodes connecting concepts
• the concept chastity is connected with is a
  virtue,
• take a vow of etc
• the concept baker with bake bread get up
  early
• sell cakes knead dough etc

8

• Compare scripts of Schank and Abelson (1977),
• cognitive models of Lakoff (1987)
• Cognitive model for chastity would identify
• prototypes for the virtue like saints, and
  distinguish
• characteristics like is a virtue from
  linguistic
• constructions in which the word chastity occurs
  such
• as take a vow of chastity.
• Cognitive model for baker would identify
  prototypes
• for profession like the owner of the bakery at
  the foot
• of the hill.

9

• Burke et al. (1991) say one word may prime,
• i.e. facilitate recognition of, another word,
• the activation of nurse facilitates activation of
• doctor because priming spreads and summates
• via these many shared connections.
• Cognitive processes recoded in diary studies
• and lab experiments differ from TOT searches
• in real conversation, e.g.

10

• 1 Helen in Hammond, north Hammond. Junior Toy
  Company.
• 2 they used to make toys, little tricycles
  and scooters and everything.
• 3 David and where was it?
• 4 Helen I don't remember the street.
• 5 Hoffman?
• 6 No.
• 7 it was a little beyond right here, you
  know,
• 8 it wasn't right in north Hammond.
• 9 t was around that street that turns into
  Illinois,
• 10 there when you go to the cemetery.
• 11 here's a tavern on one side and a VFW on
  one side.
• 12 forget the street.
• 13 David Gosselin?
• 14 Helen Could be, I don't know.
• 15 I don't know,
• 16 but that's where Junior Toy was in the
  low corner there.

11

• Helen expresses her forgetfulness at line 4 with
• I dont remember the street.
• She takes a guess at the name in line 5, but
• immediately rejects the guess in line 6.
• She begins an extended description of the area in
  
• terms of landmarks in lines 7-11.
• She concludes, I forget the street at line 12,
• but David offers a guess of his own, since hes
• familiar with the local neighborhood.
• Helen expects help with name or at least
  assurance that David can identify the place.

12

• Storytellers often name landmarks and major
• streets, not phonetically similar words.
• Note references to cemetery (l. 10),
• tavern and VFW (l.. 11)
• Description in the low corner implies that the
• teller can visualize the scene.
• So why not search corpora for natural
• instances of TOT?

13

• 4.3 Discourse, frames, prototypes
• Cognitive linguists look at discourse contexts
  where
• words occur, e.g. if, for an item like roof,
• The house needs a new roof
• Then "house has a roof" is part of discourse
  frame
• Consider also frame effects
• We saw an old house.
• The roof was in need of repair.

14

• Consider typical collocations and metaphors
• she has no roof over her head
• - for 'no house'
• we're finally under one roof
• - for 'in the same house
• Moreover, Rosch and her co-workers have shown
• some properties are more salient than others
• some members of a category are more typical

15

• it may be impossible to define certain words
  without
• exemplification,
• e.g. colors, fruits, games etc
• instead of "a fruit is the edible part of a
  plant etc"
• we find "a fruit is like an apple, a peach or a
  banana"
• word meanings and categories are generally not
  
• defined by features or propositions, but by
• prototypes

16

• Testing for prototypes
• A. Ask subjects to identify the most typical bird

17

• B. Ask subjects for typical statements about
  birds,e.g.
• A bird was singing outside my window
• A bird flew down and caught a worm etc

18

• C. Then substitute different bird names into the
• statements and ask how well they fit
• A robin/eagle/chicken was singing outside
• my window
• A robin/eagle/chicken flew down and caught
• a worm

19

• D. Test for speed of verification of identity
• statements
• A robin/eagle/chicken/penguin/bat
• is a bird

20

• Prototype Effects
• prototype A trout is a typical fish
• marginal A tadpole is a kind of a fish
• non-member Their daughter is a regular fish
• Note real members don't fit here
• This trout is a regular fish

21

• Prototypical verb meanings extend
• The kid runs around the house
• The pavement runs around the house
• The rainwater runs down the spout
• The Mississippi runs from Minnesota to the Gulf
• Peter climbed a ladder
• The plane climbed to 30,000 feet
• The ivy climbed the fence
• The temperature climbed to 30 C
• Judy climbed down into the well

22

• 5. First Language Acquisition
• Natural acquisition with no special
  learningnecessary
• critical period resulting from a combination of
  factors
• development of connections between nerve cells
• myelination of nerve cells

23

• lateralization of brain functions
• dominance of left hemisphere
• corresponding development of motor skills
• general cognitive stages of development
• (Piaget)

24

• 5.1 Developmental sketch
• Age Language General
• (months)
• 9 babbling crawling
• 10 first words standing,
• precurrent, maintained claps hand,
• (ba)nana(na) for holds spoon
• 'banana, food, mama'

25

• Age Language General
• (months)
• 11 5-10 recurrent words first steps,
• fulfills requests like recognizes
• bring me the blue ball pictures in
• show me the big red dog books
• 12 5 distinct vowels starts walking
• 5 distinct consonants

26

• Age Language General
• (months)
• 13 recognizable words running,
• daddy nein ball climbing furniture
• allgone
• 14 imitations horse, train simple puzzles
• reduplications turns book pages
• choochoo
• byebye taktak clock

27

• Age Language General
• (months)
• 16 recognizes own name points to himself
• 20 words Where's Nicky?
• 18 vocabulary explosion climbs stairs
• 2-word units without rail
• ducky allgone
• Nicky haben

28

• Age Language General
• (months)
• 20 3-word units hangs on monkey
• Nicky cookie haben bars, points to
• also eyes, nose, mouth
• haben Nicky cookie

29

• Age Language General
• (months)
• 22 verb particle lock up/ dramatic
• deck zu play,
• 4-word units stuffed Mami Auto fahren
  kauft animals, dolls
• Inni gute Nacht sagen

30

• Age (months) 24
• Language General
• verb endings Inni spuckt bisschen kicks
  soccer ball
• statement Nicky auch essen plays
  hide-n-seek
• question Nicky auch essen, ja?
  draws details
• command Nicky auch essen ears,
  tails, wheels
• word-formation cutter knife
• auskleben tear apart
• umwärts

31

• Age (months) 26
• Language General
• participles Mami ist weggegingt draws
  objectively
• das ist runtergefallt recognizable
  figures,
• recognizes colors
• comparison Pferdchen ein kleineres
• Mond grösser als Daddy
• Monologues/ Mami kommt darein, tic-tac
• stories Danke, Post schickt Daddy

32

• Age Language General
• (months)
• 27 future orientation sings melodies
• Let's build a castle
• I'll put it in
• 28 recursive structures counts to 5
• Ich weiss nicht, wen recognizes letters
• der Deckel verloren hat N, C, O
• questions with
• when, how

33

• Age Language
• (months)
• 30 conditionals
• ich suche, ob ich den Hasen finde
• Timmy ist traurig, wenn das
• Osterhäschen hier schläft
• plans
• I want to read a book about a story

34

• Age Language General
• (months)
• 32 first real narrative builds Legos
• It was a wooden lamby draws people
• and it was on the floor and house
• in a barn with chimney
• and they took it home and windows
• and they washed it
• and it wasn't ugly

35

• Age Language General
• (months)
• 34 reports on TV program learns to
• Plötzlich kamen zwei peddle trike
• Krokodile und haben das
• Kälbchen ge'essen
• reports on activities
• I'm pretending this is
• a castle

36

• (continued 34 months)
• explains actions
• I break it that I can make it new
• predicts
• It's gonna be real beautiful,
• you're gonna love it

37

• Age (months) 36
• Phonetics
• voiced th initial okay in the this etc
• medial v in other
• voiceless th initial s in sing
• final f in both
• vocalizes final l and r
• mispronunciations amimals, cimamon, pasketti

38

• Morphology
• double plurals mens, feets, mices
• double preterites sawed, standed
• regularized preterites goed, sitted
• reverse word-formations popcorner, mowgrasser
• Syntax
• negation I see it not, That doll sits not
  right
• questions What it did? What the lady said?
• counting 1 2 3 4 5 6 20 14 fiveteen 16

39
Mean Length of Utterance (MLU) as standard
measure of first language development as opposed
to age
40

• 5.2 Natural order of acquisition
• 5.2.1 "Why mama and papa?
• Jakobson's order for phoneme acquisition
• in babbling, children produce all kinds of
• sounds and sound combinations many
• children produce imitations after babbling
• but around age 2, children narrow their sound
• repertory and begin to produce sounds of
• their language in fixed order

41

• order reflects an attempt to create the clearest
  possible set of distinctions at any given point,
  within the given physiological limits
• this order of acquisition also reveals parallel
  
• between different languages
• most salient distinction is between Vowels (V)
  and
• Consonants (C)

42

• Vowels are characteristically open and resonant
• the prototypical V is a
• Consonants are characteristically closed and
  obstruent
• stops are prototypical Cs
• the prototypical stop is p
• the prototypical syllable is CV maximizing the
  C-V distinction, a child's first syllable should
  be pa
• ? given children's tendency to reduplication,
• a child's first real word should be papa

43
the first division within the class of Cs is that
between oral and nasal the nasal counterpart of
bilabial p is m ? maximizing the p-m
distinction and reduplicating, the child's
second word should be mama (actually initial
nasals often appear first, because of the
association with sucking and mama is often
first word recorded, because of the centrality
of mother for the child)
44
major divisions within the class of Vs are those
between front and back, high and low, spread and
open the vowel most distinct from a along all
these parameters is i ? again maximizing the
a-i distinction (and reduplicating), the
child's next words should be pipi and mimi
45
extending the pattern of Vs, always seeking to
maximize distinctness, the child should move to a
triplet a u i
46

• after the Cs p and m , the child usually acquires
  t , then the third voiceless stop k and so on
• p m t k
• child moves on to ever larger patterns with
• increasing numbers of distinctive
  features

47

• only when child controls the individual
  consonants can they occur together in 2-consonant
  clusters
• then word-initial clusters like pl- and st-
  precede
• final clusters like -lp and st
• later come initial 3-consonant clusters like
• spr- and str-
• and then word-final 3-consonant clusters like
• -rst and -sks
• of course, kids don't learn sounds in isolation,
  
• but only in words and syntactic structures