SUMMARY OF PSYCHOLOINGUISTICS BOOK
BY
Eva M. Fernandez and
Helen Smith Cairns
The Creativity of Human Language
Language is a system that allows people immense creativity. This is not the same creativity of people who write essays, fiction, or poetry. Instead, this is the linguistic creativity that is com-mon place to every person who knows a language. The creativity of human language is different from the communication system of any other animal in a number of respects. For one, speakers of a language can create and understand novel sentences for an entire lifetime. A second important kind of creativity humans possess is that we can use language to communicate anything we can think of. No other animal communication system affords its users such an unlimited range of topics.
Language as Distinct from Speech, Thought, and CommunicationLanguage is the primary communication system for the human species. In ordinary circumstances it is used to convey thoughts through speech. It is a special system, however, that functions independently of speech, thought, and communication.
Speech ought not to be confused with language, though speech is indeed the most frequent mode for transmitting linguistic information.
It is tempting to confuse thought and language, because we verbalize our thoughts using language. The distinction between language and thought (or general intelligence) becomes clear when one considers the many kinds of individuals who can think but cannot communicate through language.
Language is the primary communication system for human beings, but it is not the only way to communicate, so language can be distinguished from communication in general. Many forms of communication are not linguistic; these include non-verbal, mathematical, and aesthetic communication through music or the visual arts. Frequently, language is not used to communicate or transfer information; language can be used aesthetically (consider poetry or song lyrics) or as a means to negotiate social interactions (consider how Yo, whassup! might be the preferred greeting in some contexts but quite inappropriate in others). One of the wonderful things about language is that it can be studied in many dif- ferent ways. Its social, cultural, and aesthetic characteristics can be analyzed independently of one another. In psycholinguistics, however, researchers are primarily concerned with the underlying structure of language as a biologically based characteristic of humans, derived from the human neurological organization and function.
The Distinction between Descriptive and Prescriptive GrammarPeople who teach language are interested in teaching a standardized use of language, the form of a language that is accepted in academic and business circles. We can refer to this type of language as conforming to prescriptive grammar.
Knowing how to adapt to the standard (prescribed) way of speaking or writing is very useful for people conducting a job interview or producing a formal piece of writing. People who study language, in contrast, are interested in what is called descriptive grammar, that is, the language system that underlies ordinary use.
Language is a system that allows people immense creativity. This is not the same creativity of people who write essays, fiction, or poetry. Instead, this is the linguistic creativity that is com-mon place to every person who knows a language. The creativity of human language is different from the communication system of any other animal in a number of respects. For one, speakers of a language can create and understand novel sentences for an entire lifetime. A second important kind of creativity humans possess is that we can use language to communicate anything we can think of. No other animal communication system affords its users such an unlimited range of topics.
Language as Distinct from Speech, Thought, and CommunicationLanguage is the primary communication system for the human species. In ordinary circumstances it is used to convey thoughts through speech. It is a special system, however, that functions independently of speech, thought, and communication.
Speech ought not to be confused with language, though speech is indeed the most frequent mode for transmitting linguistic information.
It is tempting to confuse thought and language, because we verbalize our thoughts using language. The distinction between language and thought (or general intelligence) becomes clear when one considers the many kinds of individuals who can think but cannot communicate through language.
Language is the primary communication system for human beings, but it is not the only way to communicate, so language can be distinguished from communication in general. Many forms of communication are not linguistic; these include non-verbal, mathematical, and aesthetic communication through music or the visual arts. Frequently, language is not used to communicate or transfer information; language can be used aesthetically (consider poetry or song lyrics) or as a means to negotiate social interactions (consider how Yo, whassup! might be the preferred greeting in some contexts but quite inappropriate in others). One of the wonderful things about language is that it can be studied in many dif- ferent ways. Its social, cultural, and aesthetic characteristics can be analyzed independently of one another. In psycholinguistics, however, researchers are primarily concerned with the underlying structure of language as a biologically based characteristic of humans, derived from the human neurological organization and function.
The Distinction between Descriptive and Prescriptive GrammarPeople who teach language are interested in teaching a standardized use of language, the form of a language that is accepted in academic and business circles. We can refer to this type of language as conforming to prescriptive grammar.
Knowing how to adapt to the standard (prescribed) way of speaking or writing is very useful for people conducting a job interview or producing a formal piece of writing. People who study language, in contrast, are interested in what is called descriptive grammar, that is, the language system that underlies ordinary use.
Linguistic Competence and LinguisticPerformance
When people know a language, they know its grammar and its lexicon. This knowledge is called linguistic competence.
Linguistic performance, in contrast, is the use of such knowledge in the actual processing of sentences, by which we mean their production and comprehension.
Meta-linguistic awareness The reason these skills are so important is that they are highly correlated with early reading ability. Meta-linguistic skill is the awareness of language as an object, rather than simply as a vehicle for communication. Meta linguistic skills include the ability to appreciate and explain metaphors, puns, and figurative language. The person who is meta-linguistic ally aware is able to think consciously about linguistic objects.
Prosody
An aspect of language controlled by the phonological component is prosody, which could roughly be defined as the rhythm and intonation of speech. With prosody, signed languages and spoken languages are similar in that both have rules to capture regular prosodic characteristics, like the insertion of pauses in sentences, or the grouping of words into rhythmic phrases. Prosodic rules apply to units such as syllables, prosodic words, and intonational (prosodic) phrases. Because these units extend over more than one segment at a time, they are called suprasegmentals
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