Chapter 6 Language Processing in Mind6.1 Introduction1. Language is a mirror of the mind in a deep and significant sense.2. Language is a product of human intelligence, created a new in each individual byoperation that lie far beyond the reach of will or consciousness.3. Psycholinguistics “proper” can perhaps be glossed as the storage, comprehension,production and acquisition of language in any medium (spoken or written).4. Psycholinguistics is concerned primarily with investigating the psychological reality oflinguistic structures.5. The differences between psycholinguistics and psychology of language.Psycholinguistics can be defined as the storage, comprehension, production and acquisition of language in any medium (spoken or written). It is concerned primarily with investigating the psychological reality of linguistic structures.On the other hand, the psychology of language deals with more general topics such as the extent to which language shapes thought, and from the psychology of communication, includes non-verbal communication such as gestures and facial expressions.6. Cognitive psycholinguistics: Cognitive psycholinguistics is concerned above all withmaking inferences about the content of the human mind.7. Experimental psycholinguistics: Experimental psycholinguistics is mainly concernedwith empirical matters, such as speed of response to a particular word.6.1.1 Evidence1. Linguists tend to favor descriptions of spontaneous speech as their mainsource of evidence, whereas psychologists mostly prefer experimental studies.2. The subjects of psycholinguistic investigation are normal adults and childrenon the one hand, and aphasics----people with speech disorders-----on the other.The primary assumption with regard to aphasic patient that a breakdown insome part of language could lead to an understanding of which componentsmight be independent of others.6.1.2 Current issues1. Modular theory: Modular theory assumes that the mind is structured intoseparate modules or components, each governed by its own principles andoperating independently of others.2. Cohort theory: The cohort theory hypothesizes that auditory word recognitionbegins with the formation of a group of words at the perception of the initialsound and proceeds sound by sound with the cohort of words decreasing asmore sounds are perceived. This theory can be expanded to deal with writtenmaterials as well. Several experiments have supported this view of wordrecognition. One obvious prediction of this model is that if the beginningsound or letter is missing, recognition will be much more difficult, perhapseven impossible. For example: Gray tie------ great eye; a name-----an aim;an ice man-----a nice man; I scream-----ice cream; See Mable----seem able;well fare----welfare; lookout------look out ; decade-----Deck Eight;Layman------laymen; persistent turn------persist and turn3. Psychological reality: The reality of grammar, etc. as a purported account ofstructures represented in the mind of a speaker. Often opposed, in discussionof the merits of alternative grammars, to criteria of simplicity, elegance, andinternal consistency.4. The three major strands of psycholinguistic research:(1) Comprehension: How do people use their knowledge of language, andhow do they understand what they hear or read?(2) Production: How do they produce messages that others can understand inturn?(3) Acquisition: How language is represented in the mind and how languageis acquired?6.2 Language comprehension6.2.1 Word recognition1. An initial step in understanding any message is the recognition of words.2. One of the most important factors that effects word recognition is howfrequently the word is used in a given context.3. Frequency effect: describes the additional ease with which a word is accesseddue to its more frequent usage in the language.4. Recency effect: describe the additional ease with which a word is accesseddue to its repeated occurrence in the discourse or context.5. Another factor that is involved in word recognition is Context.6. Semantic association network represents the relationships between varioussemantically related words. Word recognition is thought to be faster whenother members of the association network are provided in the discourse.6.2.2 Lexical ambiguity1. lexical ambiguity: ambiguity explained by reference to lexical meanings: e.g.that of I saw a bat, where a bat might refer to an animal or, among others,stable tennis bat.2. There are two main theories:(1) All the meanings associated with the word are accessed, and(2) only one meaning is accessed initially. e.g.a. After taking the right turn at the intersection….“right” is ambiguous: correct vs. rightwardb. After taking the left turn at the intersection…“left” is unambiguous6.2.3 Syntactic processing1. Once a word has been dentified , it is used to construct a syntactic structure.2. As always, there are cinokucatuibs due to the ambiguity of individual wordsand to the different possible ways that words can be fit into phrases.Sometimes there is no way to determine which structure and meaning asentence has.e.g. The cop saw the spy with the binoculars. “with the binoculars” isambiguity(1) the cop employed binoculars in order to see the spy.(2) it specifies “the spy has binoculars.”3. Some ambiguities are due to the ambiguous category of some of the words inthe sentence.e.g. the desert trains, trains (培训；列车)the desert trains man to be hardly. 沙漠使人坚韧。