the presentation for the class

1. Psycholinguistics: the study of
language processing
Muzaffer Çetin

2. OUTLINE
My aim: to summarize a number of methods and
techniques psycho-linguists employ in order to learn
more about the way language users process linguistic
data: (a) the study of the slips of the
tongue,(b) experimental methods involving lexical
decisions and priming, experimental methods
concerning sentence processing such
as timed-reading and eye-movement experiments,
and (c) the study of event-related potentials produced
by the brain while processing language. A number of
psycholinguistic findings concerning pronunciation,
morphology, and syntax are reviewed. An
outline of different psycholinguistic models of
language such as those of serial and parallel
processing comes at the end.

3. Psycholinguistics
Definition

4. Methods of psycholinguistic research

5. Unconscious thoughts and feelings can transfer to the conscious mind in
the form of parapraxes, popularly known as “Freudian slips” or slips of the
tongue. We reveal what is really on our mind by saying something we
didn’t mean to.

6. parapraxis, is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is
interpreted as occurring due to the interference of an unconscious
("dynamically repressed") subdued wish, conflict, or train of thought
guided by the ego and the rules of correct behavior.

7. Freud believed
that slips of the
tongue provided
an insight into
the unconscious
mind and that
there were no
accidents, every
behavior
(including slips
of the tongue)
was significant
(i.e. all behavior
is determined).

8. • Sigmund Freud started it as a therapy in which he let the patients/subjects to
speak, and discovered that the root cause of their psychological disorders.
• Psychoanalytical criticism studies the unintentional utterance of tongue as
productions/representations of repressed desires.
SLIPS OF TONGUE

9. • In a psychoanalytic sense
Slips of tongue are the
symbols which have
much deeper personal
significance.
• But on the other hand he
stated himself that not all
the slips of tongue were
all significant symbols of
repression there can be
other reasons too.

10. William A. Spooner (1844-1930), a famous
lecturer at Oxford University to whom
many slips of the tongue have been
attributed. For this reason, slips of the
tongue are sometimes called
Spoonerisms.
SPOONERISMS: is the transposition of
initial consonants in a pair of words.
Examples:
(1) Intended: You have wasted the whole
term
Said: You have tasted the whole
worm

11. • In Psycholinguistics Slips of
Tongue are generally
considered as Speech
errors.
• Slips of the tongue have
been the object of
PSYCHOLINGUISTICS
research since 1960s. One
of the most imprortant
contributors is VICTORIA
FROMKIN.
• She contended that we
switch initials consonants
of words with a single
clause.

12. Mystery behind slips of tongue
• All these errors involve
morphemes being exchanged
within a sentence. A sentence
must be planned out before
speech begins. They also provide
evidence that the morpheme-
rather than the word-is the
fundamental building block of
English sentence production.
(inflectional suffix s remains in its
original place while the nouns
“rule and word” in reverse
positions

13. • This suggests that there is pre-planning of an
utterance: speakers have a „mental image” of an
utterance before they even start producing it.
• Victoria Fromkin Said that:
“Slips of the tongue are often the result of
a sound being carried over from one word
to the next”
• Although the slips are mostly treated as errors of
articulation, it has been suggested that they may result
from ‘slips of the brain’ as it tries to organize linguistic
messages.

14. • Slips of tongue occurs without any control over
the speech
Serendre Shutter in 2004 stated that:
It is a complicated mental processing which is
happening entirely below the level of
consciousness, so we're not aware of doing
anything except when we hear ourselves saying
something funny, and its all happening at such
lighting speed that we're not aware of any time
these steps are taking.

15. TYPES OF SLIPS OF TONGUE
• Tongue slips can be classified into two
categories : the major category and the
secondary category.
• Smith (2003:1) identifies three levels of
tongue slips, they are as follows:

16. WORD ERRORS
Interchanges of Words
MORPHEME ERRORS
Interchanges of Morphemes
SOUND ERRORS
Interchanges of Sounds

19. • Two conditions increase the risk of making a
so-called Freudian slip, Wegner says. One is
the thought that you'd rather suppress. The
other is a stressor, a distraction, time pressure,
or a competing mental agenda.

24. 1. Methods of psycholinguistic
research
3.Experimental Methods: sentence processing
Parsing: analysis of the meanings of its words and
syntactic structure.
3.1.Timed-reading experiments
Longer press times for content words
Pause at the end of clause boundaries
3.2.Eye movements
Longer fixation times on less frequent words
Regressive saccades

25. • Thank you for listening to me.
• Muzaffer