PSYCHOLINGUSTICS

 

THE NATURE OF LINGUISTIC COMPETENCE

 The Universality of Human Language

Languages are similar in their function and organization. Every human language has a grammar. Furthermore, the organization in all human languages both of lexicons and the formal properties of grammatical systems are similar . This is what psycholinguists mean by the statement that language is universal.

 Phonotactic constraints

Phonotactic constraints are really constraints on the way syllables can be created in a particular language. A syllable is a group of sounds which must contain a nucleus (usually a vowel), and may have an onset (one or more syllable-initial consonants) and a coda (one or more syllablefinal consonants). Together, the nucleus and the coda are the syllable’s rhyme.

THE BIOLOGICAL BASIS OF LANGUAGE

Psycholinguistics is a concerned with how language is represented and processed in the brain. on language as a system controlled by the brain that is different from but closely linked to general cognition.

 Language Is Species Specific

Language is one of the most important component to communicate and to convey messages between individuals, we can simplify that every species has a communication system. There is no other species that use language communication system to communicate like human. There are many research was made to find if the animals can communicate using language. For example: Lana a chimpanzee that can operate the computer. There are three key with a word that written in there, please, machine give and water. When she wants to drink she knows that she should press water key. Even she can do that things, its does not mean she understand the word. It can be because of she knows when she press that key she will get water as a reward

 Language Is Universal in Humans.        

All human babies are born with an innate capacity to learn language. It genetically prepared to organized linguistics information. Human’s ability to acquire and use language is as natural as a fish’s ability to swim. Language does not need to be taught. Children are acquiring language naturally.

 Language Development Is Triggered by the Environment

On of the factors that affect human’s ability in acquire language is environment. Children will not develop language if language is not accessible in their environment or nobody is there to interact with them. How people acquire language is based on the environment. For example: a baby that was born from Indonesian parents lives in Japan. The environment helps the baby to acquire Japanese language. He hear Japanese language everyday from people around him and it makes him can speak Japanese well. That is the evidence that environment is helpful in acquire language.

 Anatomical and Physiological Correlates for Language

Gall in eighteen century believed that musical ability, morality, and language ability is in different place in our brain. It’s proved by Broca’s research. Aphasia is a disease that happened in the place that processing language inside our brain.