Psycholinguistics

PresentationTopic:Pyscholinguistics and BilingualismInstructor: Sir Doctor Umar-ud-Din Presenters:SHAZIA SHAFIQUE, MARIA ASHIQ, MUHAMMAD SHAKIL

Pyscholinguistics and BilingualismPsycholinguistics is the field of study that discusses how language is produced and understood.Psycholinguists are the experts who are interested in assembling data to support theories of how language is organized in the brain. These theories underlie models that psycholinguists posit about the parts of the brain devoted to language processing.PsycholinguisticsRecently, more and more psycholinguists have become interested in bilingualism. A major reason is that the ability to use two languages, and how they are used, can tell us something about what features or processes in the brain underlie language abilities in general that studying only one language may not reveal.PsycholinguisticsMost studies by psycholinguists are experimental studies. That is, experimental researchers study human participants in a laboratory setting where the researchers can control exactly what information is presented to the subjects.Also, they can vary the information with similar or different participants in order to test specific hypotheses.The Goal of PsycholinguistsThe goal of some of the psycholinguists concerned with bilinguals also is to study comprehension, but many study production.Some researchers are interested in such topics as how fast bilinguals who are shown a word on a computer screen can identify which of the languages the word comes from under various conditions (it might be the bilinguals have just been shown a word from other language). This is the study of comprehension .

Production StudyOn the other hand, with some sort of distraction present on the screen, bilinguals may be asked to produce the word in a specified language that names a picture. This is a production study.The Bilingual LexiconThe nature of the bilingual lexicon is a theme that is relevant to just about every other theme. Think of the bilingual lexicon as a sort of abstract dictionary in the mindWhere is Language in Bilingual Brain? ContinuedIn the field of psycholinguistics, the study of the acquisition of the native language (L1) has given rise to a large number of models. The parameter setting approach has become the leading model for many investigators (Gass & Selinker, 1994). Linguistic parameters, i.e., sets of possible grammatical and phonological variations (values) within a frame of invariant principles, are considered to be part of the innate endowment of Universal Grammar (Chomsky, 1968).Where is Language in Bilingual Brain?Advanced by many neurologists in the past was the hypothesis suggesting that all languages known by a bilingual or a polyglot are localized in the same cerebral areas. Parallel recovery of both languages in bilingual aphasics is rather common. It led to a subsequent conclusion that there is no basis for postulating a separate cerebral organization of different languages in the bilingual brain (Fabbro, 1999).

Who is a Bilingual?A bilingual is a person who speaks two or more languages. Some studies test more than two languages.An early bilingual is defined as someone who acquires his or her two languages before the age of seven to nine (although the term can refer to an earlier age), and a late one is someone who acquires them at some later point.Compound BilingualsIf speakers acquired them in the same context, they were called compound bilinguals. The assumption was that the languages of compound bilinguals were interdependent in the sense that one abstract concept (supporting a meaning) was realized as two different words, one in each language, but there was only one concept involved.Coordinate BilingualIn contrast, a coordinate bilingual was learned his or her languages in different environments (e.g. one at home and one at school). For the coordinate bilingual, the claim was that words in different languages that stood for the same object or concept each had their own ties to the pre-linguistic conceptual level (in a model of language).Two other DivisionsFirst, bilingualism can be either active (the speaker actually speaks and understands both languages) or passive (the speaker understands his or her L2, but either cant or chooses not to speak it). Second, a bilingual may be a simultaneous bilingual (both languages acquired at the same time) or a sequential bilingual (one language acquired before the other).The Relationship between Thought and a Specific LanguageThere is an age-old argument under what is called the Whorfian hypothesis (also called the SapirWhorf hypothesis) about the connection between the structure of a specific language and how its speakers conceptualize the world. The strong version of the hypothesis suggests that the way a person understands the world is controlled by his or her language.Other HypothesisThis hypothesis has some more current, generally weaker, versions, too. Consider Pavlenko (2000: 3), who argues that some differences exist in how different bilinguals conceptualize the world that are based partly (apparently) on input from their languages and cultures. She writes that in the study of bilingualism, conceptual representations should be treated as related but not equivalent to word meanings . . . While some concepts may overlap partially or even completely between any two languages/ cultures in question, any claim of correspondence requires evidence and cannot be implicitly assumed. Also see Gumperz and Levinson (1996) and Gentner and Goldin-Meadow (2003).A common Semantic System or not?An early proposal was that words from the bilinguals several languages were represented separately, but that they shared a common semantic system; that is, under this view, there would be a single memory store with semantic representations for both languages. This has been referred to as the interdependence model. Some researchers still support this view, basically arguing that there is a single memory store for both languages.A common semantic system or not?But later studies of various aspects of bilingualism suggest otherwise. They support an independence model. That is, the more current view is that bilinguals have two distinct memories and semantic systems. However, as will become clear in later sections and in the next chapter, this view about separate entries (i.e. an abstract item in the mental lexicon) does not mean that both systems could not be activated at the same time.ExamplesObjects may be classified differently or viewed differently in relation to other objects across languages. For example, an object such as rice is not necessarily the same entity cross-linguistically. For some cultures (and their languages) cooked rice and even rice cooked in different ways are called by a number of different names than uncooked rice. Also, not all containers that may be called a bottle in some languages will be called by a counterpart to bottle in other languages; instead, a bottle may be called by the word for container or some other word.The Mental Lexicon and LemmasOnce beyond the level of concepts and at the level underlying actual language, research supports the idea of a common mental lexicon. But this abstract lexicon is not fused; it has different entries for the bilinguals two (or more) languages. These entries are generally called lemmas by psycholinguists (philosophers and lexicographers use the term differently, each somewhat differently from the other).The Mental Lexicon and LemmasPsycholinguists generally agree that lemmas are tagged in some way so that all lemmas are language-specific. The idea is that lemmas are not words, but underlie the actual words that are produced in speech (i.e. on the surface level as opposed to the abstract level); that is, lemmas only exist in an abstract sense.Levels of ActivationGrosjean (e.g. 2001) speaks of a continuum along which speakers can move in his Language Mode model, he says that if the bilingual has just been using both languages and he or she then shifts to speaking only one language, the speaker is still in the bilingual mode. That is, activation varies. In Grosjeans model, a bilinguals motivation to move from a monolingual mode to a bilingual mode depends on a number of factors, including proficiency but the task and the situation.What are Cognates?Words are called cognates across languages if they come from the same source, because the languages in question come from a presumed common ancestor. Cognates share form and meaning. Thus, English hound is cognate with German hund dog and the two languages are related in their origins; both English and German are Germanic languages. Many languages have similar words because they are borrowed from a single source language; for example, democracy is borrowed from Greek. But such similar words do not count as cognates.Distractors that Slow down Reaction TimeDistractors are strings of letters that resemble the test word in some way.Sometimes neighbors are used as distractors; these are real words in either of the test languages. They are defined as words differing by a single letter, but with order and word length maintained. So, for example, the English word word has neighbors in English that include the word work. In both identifying and processing distractors and target words, spelling conventions as well as phonology (pronunciation) are involved.Distractors called EnemiesSometimes there are distractors that are called enemies. An enemy may resemble the target word in its spelling, but it differs in how its pronounced. So in English, word and wore are enemies because their vowels are pronounced differently even though they are both written as o.Distractors and Level of ProficiencyVery proficient bilinguals had slower response times than less proficient ones. That is, very proficient bilinguals had slow response times when both the prime and the target words were from the same language, but had even slower response times when the prime and target words came from different languages.Global Effects as DistractorsAnother possible distractor in bilingual tests is what has been called global lexical activation. Most studies seem to show there is some activation carryover from one language to the next. This includes not only carryover from what has been going on in the session, but also from what the participant is told at the beginning of the session about which language will be used. Again, a finding such as this indicates that both of the bilinguals languages are on.Adding Bilinguals to Language-Production ModelsTwo Models(the Inhibitory Control model and the Revised Hierarchical model. These are top-down models, with accounts beginning at a conceptual level and comparing languages in regard to how one language is more activated than the other or how meanings may be differently accessed in the two languages.The third model, the BIA+ model, is a model of how both languages may be activated in word recognition or comprehension. It is a bottom-up model because it deals with word form, not word meaning.Inhibitory Control (IC) Modelthe Inhibitory Control (IC) model of Green (1998) offers answers to the questions related to how bilinguals keep from producing both of their languages at the same time when this isnt their intention. This model assumes that there is a supervisory attentional system (SAS) that controls the activation of task schemas. A task may be something such as naming a picture or translating a word, so the motivation to inhibit a language depends on non-linguistic contexts external to a language or its word.Inhibitory Control (IC) ModelThe key to this model is that the activation or inhibition of schemas is what regulates language selection. Language-task schemas can send directions to access a word from the lexico-semantic system (i.e. the mental lexicon, composed of abstract entries underlying actual surface forms). But the SAS has to specify the required language to the task schemas (information the SAS gets from the conceptualizer in a top-down fashion). Green states, A language task schema regulates the outputs from the lexico-semantic system by altering the activation levels of presentation within that system and by inhibiting outputs from the systemThe Revised Hierarchical ModelIn a second model oriented to bilingual production, Kroll and Stewart (1994) hypothesize differences in how L1 and L2 words are accessed in order to explain at least part of selection in their Revised Hierarchical model. Like many others, they propose that words that are translation equivalents are connected. In this model, counterparts across languages are connected in two ways both through a common concept that they stand for, but also by direct associative links that are at the word level. But the critical point is that this model gives preference to the L1. Its words are more strongly connected to concepts than are L2 words.The Bilingual Interactive Activation + modelFinally, consider a model that is oriented toward comprehension, the Bilingual Interactive Activation (BIA+) model of Dijkstra and van Heuven (2002). The BIA+ is the latest version of the BIA model of 1994. Its called an interactive model because feedback between levels in the system of language production is allowed. But it is also a bottom-up model. This means selection of a language, in effect, starts with activating the phonological and orthographic features (sound and letter features) of a word. this model rejects a powerful language-specific inhibition mechanism that would be found in a top-down model (in which the initial selection is to inhibit one language and activate the other)MemoryMany studies have attempted to understand what we call memory.Neurologists have identified areas of the brain associated with a storing process (Luria, 1976; Squire, 1987). These are the cortical areas that also support cognitive processes, including language. But what changes occur are largely unknown, even though a name has been given to what happens, long-term potentiation, with the implication that a potential exists to recall the task or experience.NeurobiologyPET scans were used to measure brain activity in bilingual brainsPeople who grew up bilingual had brain activity in the same area of the Brocas area.People who learned a second language later in life activity was found in two separate parts of the Brocas area. Wernickes Area stores the ability to understand and process information for both early and late bilinguals.

Brocas Area

DefinitionofBroca's Area.Broca's areawas named after French surgeon PaulBroca, who is accredited with determining the significance and function of thispart of the brain.Broca's areais located in the lowerportionof the left frontal lobe of thebrain. Broca's areaor theBroca areais a region in thefrontal lobeof the dominanthemisphere(usually the left) of the hominidbrainwith functions linked tospeech production.

Wernickes Area

Wernickes AreaThisareawas first described in 1874 by German neurologist Carl Wernicke. TheWernicke areais located in the posterior third of the upper temporal convolution of the left hemisphere of thebrain. Thus, it lies close to the auditory cortex.Wernicke's areaWernicke's areaalso called Wernicke's speech area, is one of the two parts of thecerebral cortexlinked, since the late nineteenth century, to speech (the other is Broca's area). It is involved in the production of written and spoken language.

Types of MemoryWilliam Jamess distinction between primary and secondary memory (James, 1890) was refined to referring to short- and long-term memory, but then in the 1960s to short- and long-term store. Evidence from normal persons supported this distinction, but even stronger evidence came from comparing memory loss in patients with brain lesions, especially two patients.Declarative and Procedural MemoryDeclarative memory is also called explicit memory, and procedural memory is also called implicit memory. Think of these as two different stores for two, different types of knowledge. Declarative memory refers to knowledge that is learned and the individual can express it at well.There are two subtypes of declarative memory: semantic memory (encyclopedic knowledge of things learned about the world); and episodic memory (past experiences that we can recall consciously). Note that semantic memory includes the meaning of words that youve learned.Procedural MemoryProcedural memory refers to learning (or acquisition) that may have depended on repeated execution of a task, but how much awareness was involved in the task varies. A defining feature of such knowledge is that what it is is not something you can articulate. And its knowledge used without conscious control. The best example of knowledge in procedural memory is the acquisition of certain aspects of your first language.Working MemoryResearchers postulate that a system called working memory exists. It is assumed to contain and process information but to contain it only temporarily. The assumption is that working memory takes part in tasks such as reasoning, comprehension, and learning. It includes a phonological store (where verbal information is kept for two or fewer seconds).Separate Memory Systems for L2s?An L1 is learned by means of implicit strategies (procedural memory results), or at least, critical aspects of the L1s grammatical apparatus depend on procedural memory. But an L2 may be learned more formally, involving memorizing words and grammatical structures, employing mainly or entirely declarative memory). Evidence comes from many sources, but especially from certain types of aphasia in which the bilinguals two languages are not both lost or both retained.AphasiaAphasia is the formal term for the partial or total loss of the ability to speak and/or comprehend language; it is caused by injuries or disease, including stroke. And it is more common than many people realize. Worldwide, there are about 300,000 new cases of aphasia every year. Of these, 40,000 may be cases of bilingual aphasia (M. Paradis, 2001).Patterns of recoveryAphasic bilinguals do not necessarily recover both or all of their languages. If they do recover either language or both, it is not necessarily at the same rate or to the same extent.Parallel recovery: The most common pattern is that both languages are impaired in the same ways and both are restored at the same rate.Differential recovery: Each language shows a different degree of impairment.Successive recovery: One language doesnt begin to recover until the other has been largely recovered.Antagonistic recovery: One language loses ground as the other one improves.Selective recovery: The patient doesnt regain any recovery of one of the languages.