Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics

Psycholinguistics or 'the psychology of language' encompasses so many different aspects of language, from language acquisition, to syntax and semantics, to phonolgy and morphology. With current and future technological advances and with the collaboration of other disciplines, psycholinguistics aims to advance our understanding of the human brain.

The common aim of psycholinguistics is "to find out about the structures and processes which underlie a human's ability to speak and understand language".^[1]


Psycholinguistics involves:

• language processing - reading, writing, speaking, listening and memory.^[2]
• lexical storage and retrieval - how are words stored in our minds and then used.
• language acquisition - how a first language is acquired by children.
• special circumstances - twins, deafness, blindness, dyslexia and brain damage.
• the brain and language - unique to humans? evolution and part of the brain concerned with language.
• second language acquisition and use - Bilingualism, how a second language is learnt.

References

^[1] Aitchison, J., (1976). The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics.

^[2] Field, J., (2004). Psycholinguistics: the Key Concepts.