As You Enter

Pick up:

Study note for today’s lecture

Reading for next week

Psycholinguistics

Overview:

Course Requirements and Syllabus

Psycholinguistics

is a marriage of psychology and linguistics.

Linguistics studies language as a formal system –how is language structured? What are rules for organizing sounds into words, words into sentences? Its three main branches are phonology, semantics, and morphology.

Psycholinguistics is the study of language behavior: how people learn and use language to communicate ideas.

Central topics: how is language perceived, represented, understood, and remembered in the mind and brain?

It adopts an experimental approach.

Adults –Normal and Abnormal

(e.g., normal readers and dyslexics)

Children – Normal and Abnormal

(e.g., normal and stuttering)

Participants, subjects

The mental lexicon (from Alec Marantz, 2001)

sport figure

sing door carry

turf turtle gold turk turkey

turn

water turbo turquoise

turnip turmoil

sport figure

sing door carry

turf turtle gold turk turkey

turn

water turbo turquoise

turnip turmoil TURN

The mental lexicon (from Alec Marantz, 2001)

Automatic activation

TURN

sport figure

sing door carry

turf turtle gold

turk turkey

water turn

turbo turquoiseturnip turmoil

Lateral inhibition

TURN

sport figure

sing door carry

turf turtle gold turk turkey

water turn turbo turquoise

turnip turmoil

语言学是一门研究人的语言结构和规律的学科。

经

理

同

意

照

顾

客

的

要

求

设

计

产

品。

经理同意照顾客的要求设计产品。

Psychological reality of words

Objectives:

1. To promote critical thinking of theoretical and methodological issues in psycholinguistic research  

2. To bring students to an understanding of the interdisciplinary nature of modern psycholinguistic inquiries  

3. To develop students' skills necessary for high-quality paper presentation

LING2034 PsycholinguisticsSyllabus  Week 1 Sep. 8Overview of course requirements and syllabus Week 2 Sep. 15What Is Psycholinguistics? Week 3 Sep. 22Word Recognition: The Mental Lexicon I Week 4 Sep. 29Word Recognition: The Mental Lexicon II Week 5 Oct. 6Phonological Processing in Word Recognition(Topics for the midterm essay will be announced.)  Week 6 Oct. 13Sentence Comprehension: Syntactic and Semantic Processing

LING2034 PsycholinguisticsSyllabus (continued)  Week 7 Oct. 20Reading week  Week 8 Oct. 27Midterm essay Week 9 Nov. 3Language and the Brain I: Lesion Study Week 10 Nov. 10Language and Thought

Week 11 Nov. 17Language and the Brain II: Functional Brain Imaging Study Week 12 Nov. 24How Children Learn to Read Week 13 Dec. 1Summary of the semester’s teaching

 Instructor  Dr. L. H. TanOffice: 115 Main BuildingOffice phone: 2241-5877Email: tanlh@hku.hk Office hour: by appointment.

3A, 2 U Drive, Joint Laboratories for Language and Cognitive Neuroscience2241-5873, 2241-5877  

Teaching Assistants  (1) Miss Claudia WongOffice: 242 MBEmail: claudiaw@graduate.hku.hkTutorials: TBA

(2) Mr Jie Zhuang Office: 254 MBEmail: zhuangj@hkusua.hku.hkTutorials: TBA

Course Materials:

1. Rayner K., & Pollatsek A. The Psychology of Reading. Englewood Cliffs, N.J. : Prentice-Hall, 1989. (Available in the University Bookstore. The Main Library has at least one copy of the book.)

2. Reading materials will be distributed by the lecturer.

The course website: http://www.hku.hk/linguist/m_staff.html Click the instructor’s name, and then the course name. The course website will include downloadable materials that are helpful if you miss a lecture, lose your notes, or are reviewing for a test. Handouts distributed in class and slides used during lectures can also be found from the website.

Evaluation and Grading   Class participation: counting as 20% of your grade.  One midterm essay (open book): 40% of your grade. (The midterm essay will be written during the class. Topics of 3 possible essays will be announced in advance; you will need to prepare for all of them, since you won't know which one will be actually chosen by the lecturer.)  One term paper: 40%. (Topics of 5 possible essays will be announced; you will need to choose 1 and write a paper of 4-5 pages.)