Psycholinguistics: Chapter One

1) Introduction
Psycholinguistics studies four key areas:
1. First Language Acquisition: How children naturally learn their
mother tongue-from crying and babbling to forming sentences and
grammar.
2. Language Production: How we turn thoughts into words through
processes like conceptualization, formulation, articulation and self-
monitoring.
3. Language Comprehension: How we interpret what we hear or read,
often using context and prior knowledge to make sense of it.
4. Language Dissolution: What happens when language is lost due to
age, injury, or disorders, and what (language) reveals about the brain's
role in communication?
So, this course helps us understand the psychological aspects of language
and its role in human cognition and communication.

2) First Word Acquisition in English:

1. When do children say their first word?
 Most children say their first word between 10-15 months of age.
 These first words are usually simple, like “mama” or “dada,” and are
often connected to their daily experiences.
2. How do children acquire their first word?
 Listening: Babies listen to the speech of people around them.
 Repetition: Repeated exposure to words helps them associate
sounds with meanings.
 Interaction: Engaging with caregivers through speech and gestures
supports word learning.
3. Types of first words:
• Initial words are often related to familiar people, objects, or sounds,
such as:
• People: “Mama,” “Dada.”
• Objects: “Ball,” “Dog.”
• Sounds: “Woof,” “Bye.”
4. Factors affecting first word acquisition:
 Linguistic environment: A language-rich environment
accelerates word learning.
 Social interaction: Communication with caregivers and others
enhances vocabulary.
 Individual differences: Children develop at different rates, and
that’s perfectly normal.
5. Development after the first word:
 After the first word, children begin building a small vocabulary.
 They gradually improve pronunciation and use words in more
diverse contexts.

3) Crying
Crying: The first stage of linguistic development.
Crying of a baby conveys significant linguistic communication.
Romans believed it was a gift of a specific spirit.
Plato believed that the very first communicative distinction is between
comfort and discomfort.
A common mistake was to assume that children had no language till they
uttered their first word, usually about the first year.
Crying isn’t only communicative. (Human Symbolic Communication) It is
also a direct precursor to both language and speech (Spoken
Communication).
Crying is considered as a kind of language without speech (in the first few
months).
Crying teaches children how to produce linguistic sounds. Crying is a
direct preparation for a lifetime of vocal communication.
Crying: the First Stage of Linguistic Development
Crying the earliest forms of communication in infants and plays a
significant role in linguistic and speech development. Early thinkers like
the Romans and Plato recognized the communicative aspect of crying,
distinguishing between comfort and discomfort. Modern
psycholinguistics has moved beyond the misconception that language
starts only with a child's first word. Instead, crying is seen as both a
precursor to symbolic language and a preparation for speech.

Key Points:
Crying as Communication:
 Crying conveys discomfort or needs, acting as a form of
"language without speech."
 Initially, it is spontaneous and involuntary, controlled by the
nervous system.
Developmental Role of Crying:
 Crying helps babies learn to produce linguistic sounds.
 It trains the timing of breathing patterns, essential for speech,
by coordinating inhalation and exhalation during wailing.
Transition to Symbolism:
 Early crying is iconic, with a clear link between sound intensity
and discomfort.
 By 1-2 months, crying becomes more differentiated and
symbolic, sometimes aimed at eliciting attention rather than
signaling distress.
Preparation for Speech:
 The vocal practice involved in crying supports the development
of speech, as babies refine control over their vocal cords and
breathing.

4) Cooing
* Definition: Cooing is the production of soft, repetitive vowel-like
sounds by infants, typically starting around 2 months old. It's a pre-
linguistic vocalization.
• Examples: /uː/, /ɑː/, /iː/, /ɔɪ/, and combinations like "ah-ooh-ee."
Sounds are often melodic with varied pitch and intensity.
• Types:
 Simple (single vowel sounds)
 Complex (combinations of vowels with varied pitch)
 Raspberries (tongue-lip vibration)
 Vocal Play (including consonants and varied intonations).
• Development: Cooing is a developmental process; sounds become
more complex over time. Individual variation exists.

5) Babbling
Babbling refers to the natural tendency of children of this Age to burst
out in strings of consonant-vowel syllable clusters, almost as a kind of
vocalic play.
Some psycholinguists distinguish Between marginal babbling, an early
stage similar to cooing Where infants produce a few, and somewhat
random, consonants, And canonical babbling, which usually emerges at
around eight Months, when the child's vocalizations narrow down to
syllables That begin to approximate the syllables of the caretaker's
language .
Interestingly enough, when infants begin to babble consonants at the
canonical stage, they do not necessarily produce only the Consonants of
their mother tongue. That is, their earliest Acquisition is not of the
segmental phonemes (the individual Consonants and vowels) that go to
make up their native tongue.
In Fact, children seem to play with all sorts of segments at this stage, and
frequently produce consonants that are found In other Languages, not
just the language by which they are surrounded.
Since infants may babble vowels and consonants which are not Part of
their mother's native repertoire, babbling is not evidence that children
are starting to acquire the segmental sounds of their mother tongue.
But recent psycholinguistic research supports earlier assumptions that
children are beginning to learn the Term suprasegmental refers to the
musical pitch, rhythm, and Stress which accompany the syllables we
produce and which play such an important role in marking grammar,
meaning, and Intention. Eight-month-old babies reared in English-
speaking Families begin to babble with English-sounding melody; those of
a similar age who are brought up in Chinese-speaking homes begin to
babble with the tones and melodies of Chinese.
Babbling is the First psycholinguistic stage where we have strong
evidence that Infants are influenced by all those many months of
exposure to their mother tongue. However, as the babbling stage begins,
a half A year into life, the lack of supra segmental accuracy In the
Babbling of a deaf baby is often the first overt signal of the child's
Disability.

6) First word
→First Language Acquisition
Stage of linguistic development "first words" after crying, cooing and
babbling.
* We come to the climax of child's early language development. the first
words
* A child crosses this linguistic stage at (one year old) and children often
use (idiomorphs)
Idiomorphs: are words they invent in their initial attempts to acquire a
language
→ Words they children invent when they first catch on
Examples: Kaka for milk
Some children say wa wa For cat
A survey of the words children first learn refer to prominent, everyday
object, and usually things that can be manipulated by the child.
Examples: Kitty- doggie and so on
In this stage we can see evidence For (piaget) Calls (ego centric speech):
children, naturally, want to talk about what surrounds them; at life's
beginnings they are the center of their Universe
7) Syntactic awareness “using single words as sentences by children”
The acquisition of grammar:- Can be related to the development of
transformational Generative grammar. The most influential school of
linguistics to affect the study of grammar.
(ITG) grammar has always been involved most centrally with the study of
Sentences.
-The gleaning of information on how Children create sentences is
manageable, discrete, and can be done while caring for the Child.
So many studies are done on the acquisition of grammar by toddlers - as
they Converse with their Parents at home
syntactic awareness
*some parents noticed that thier children seemed to use single words as
sentence
-for example the single word (milk) could sometimes used as a statement
or a request or even an exclamation
*this use of single words as skeletal sentence is referred to as the
holophrastic stage
*holophrastic speech is the bridge which transport the child the primitive
land of cries, words, and names across into the brave new word of
phrases, and sentences clauses

8) The two-word stage

Children’s language acquisition is influenced by their environment, which
determines their mother tongue, but they also exhibit creativity by
producing words and expressions they have not directly heard. This
demonstrates that language learning is not solely based on imitation but
also involves active cognitive processes and innovation. Children’s
linguistic creativity highlights their ability to internalize and experiment
with language rules, making language acquisition an active and dynamic
process.

9) Creativity
"This study highlights how children’s language acquisition is not entirely
shaped by the environment. For instance, while their surroundings
determine the mother tongue, children demonstrate remarkable
creativity by forming new words and expressions. A great example is a
two-year-old who creatively transformed 'nobody' into 'yes body,'
showcasing the innate linguistic creativity in early childhood."
 Child language acquisition is relative independent of environmental
influences.
 While the environment determines the child's mother tongue (for
example, Arabic in Egypt, English in England)
 Children show creativity in language by producing words or
expressions they have not hearing before
 They often overgeneralize linguistic rules, such as using regular
plurals for irregular nouns (e.g., "mans" or "sheeps") and regular
past tense for irregular verbs (e.g., "goed" or "singed").
 Rather than parroting or imitating adults, children function like
creative problem solvers, adapting linguistic rules autonomously.

10) Stages of linguistics development

Stages of Linguistic Development:
1. First Language Learning: - A big area of study with books,
journals, and conferences about how kids learn their first language.
2. Learning English: - A lot of research focuses on how children
learn English as their mother tongue.
3. Bilingualism (Speaking Two Languages): - Studies how
children learn two languages and the effects of bilingual education. -
Sometimes linked to political discussions.
4. Older Children:
 Research looks at how school-aged children learn harder language
structures.
 Studies how language learning changes as kids grow older.
5. Critical Period:
 A special time (before age 12) when learning a first language is
easiest.
 After this age, children may develop accents when learning a second
language.
6. Stages of Learning: - All kids learn their first language step by
step, no matter which language.
7. Worldwide Research: - Studies show the same learning
patterns in children from all over the world.

11) Individual differentiation

Individual differentiation in the fields of psychology and linguistics refers
to the unique variations among individuals in cognitive, psychological,
and linguistic abilities. Here’s a closer look at how the concept is explored
in these domains:
1. In Psychology
Individual differentiation in psychology examines how people differ in
mental processes, behaviors, and personality traits due to various factors
like genetics, environment, and life experiences.
 Cognitive Abilities: Variations in memory, attention, problem-solving
skills, and learning styles.
 Personality Traits: Individual differences in traits like openness,
extraversion, and agreeableness.
 Emotional Regulation: How people experience and manage
emotions differently.
 Developmental Factors: Differences in psychological growth
influenced by biological or environmental factors.
 Mental Health: Individual susceptibility to conditions like anxiety or
depression.
Researchers use tools like psychometric tests to assess and analyze these
differences.
2. In Linguistics
Linguistic differentiation looks at how individuals vary in their language
abilities and usage.
 Language Acquisition: Differences in how people learn and master
first or second languages, influenced by age, cognitive abilities, and
exposure.
  Dialect and Sociolect: Variations in speech patterns based on social,
regional, or cultural backgrounds.
 Speech Disorders: Individual challenges like stuttering, aphasia, or
dyslexia.
 Pragmatics and Style: Personal differences in language use, such as
tone, politeness, or choice of vocabulary in various contexts.
 Neurolinguistic Variability: Differences in how brain structure and
function affect language processing and production.
These distinctions are studied to better understand both universal
language mechanisms and individual idiosyncrasies.
Intersection of Psychology and Linguistics
The fields overlap significantly in areas like psycholinguistics, where
individual differentiation is explored in:
 Language Processing: How individuals comprehend and produce
language differently.
 Cognitive-Linguistic Abilities: Links between memory, attention, and
language skills.
 Bilingualism/Multilingualism: Variations in cognitive flexibility and
linguistic performance among multilingual individuals.
 Affective Linguistics: How emotions influence individual language
use and processing.
Understanding individual differentiation in these fields helps design
tailored education systems, therapy, and communication strategies.

12) Stages of the negatives for the children

• One example of young children's acquisition sensitivity to syntax is in
the way they learn negation in English.
Stage 1
(Use of NO at the start of the sentence)
 No the sun shining.
 No Mary do it.
Stage 2
(Use of NO inside the sentence but no auxiliary or BE verb)
 I no taste it.
Stage 3
(Use of NOT with appropriate abbreviation of auxiliary or BE)
 Penny didn't laugh.
 It's not raining.