Seminar paper from the year 2003 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1- (A-), Otto-von-Guericke-University Magdeburg (Institute for Foreign Language Philology), course: Perspectives in Semantic Theory, 9 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: From the beginning of arts subject in the ancient Greece to modern cognitive science, scholars have been seeking to discover the nature of the relationship between language and thought. This relationship and the basic processes that underlie reason phenomena in general are today called cognitions. Modern cognitive science consists of an interdisciplinary ensemble of various subjects. Findings from the research for artificial intelligence, results of cognitive psychology, neurophysiology, philosophy, and finally linguistics contribute to a better understanding of any type of mental information processing. As language is said to be among the most characteristic human cognitive activities (see LAKOFF, 1987, p 113; see also BIRBAUMER, 1999, p 675), one aim of this work is to show in what respect linguistic findings are crucial to the aims of cognitive science. For this purpose I will discuss theories around the concept of categorization which is relevant for the traditional linguistic field of semantics, and also applicable to cognitive psychology and furthermore to psycholinguistics. The categorization approach seems to allow explanation for the communicative functions of language and how humans organize knowledge in general. It seems that: “Categorization is everywhere. Life is full of decisions and every choice involves a selection between a variety of competing options. These choices are guided by the category structure (...), both in language as elsewhere in cognition.” (CORRIGAN et al., 1989, p 195) The process of categorization means that we unconsciously group together every sensory input to meaningful categories. That is, we economically organize the mental representations of the outer world. From the beginning to the late 1970s and again during the 80s cognitive approaches of psychologists and linguists by the name of e.g. ELEANOR ROSCH, HILARY PUTNAM, and not too long ago GEORGE LAKOFF challenged the classical view of how humans organize knowledge while performing language. Whereas their ideas mainly provided a more integrated view of meaning within language at first, these scholars and especially LAKOFF contributed to a more detailed understanding of the fundamental human ability of categorization. Via the outline of the main currents in categorization theory, my argumentation will lead to emphasising psycholinguistic perspectives in semantic theory, as at least LAKOFF‘s approach may represent a theoretical basis for neuropsychological studies.
As language is said to be among the most characteristic human cognitive activities (see LAKOFF, 1987, p 113; see also BIRBAUMER, 1999, p 675), one aim of this work is to show in what respect linguistic findings are crucial to the aims of ...
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,5, Free University of Berlin, 56 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide a complete overview over the phenomenon of code-switching. In this paper, we will summarize the knowledge currently available on the discourse, linguistic and psycholinguistic aspects of code-switching. Such an overview can be used for different purposes: for seminar reports and papers, and for the preparation for exams in linguistics. The history of the research of code-switching has undergone various periods that have shown how complex the phenomenon of code-switching is. In the course of research of code-switching it has become clear that code-switching can be investigated from different perspectives. Researchers focussed on code-switching after they had realised that linguistic forms and practices are interrelated. And code-switching, in its turn, embodies not only variation, but the link between linguistic form and language use as social practice. Research from a linguistic and psycholinguistic perspective has focussed on understanding the nature of the systematicity of code-switching, as a way of revealing linguistic and potentially cognitive processes. Research on the psychological and social dimensions of code-switching has largely been devoted to answering the questions of why speakers code-switch and what the social meaning of code-switching is for them. The sociological perspective later goes on to attempt to use the answer to those questions to illuminate how language operates as a social process. Throughout the history of research on code-switching it has been proposed that it is necessary to link all these forms of analysis and that, indeed, it is that possibility that is one of the most compelling reasons for studying code-switching, since such a link would permit the development and verification of hypotheses regarding the relationship among linguistic, cognitive and social processes in a more general way (Heller, Pfaff 1996).[...]
Seminar paper from the year 2002 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Linguistics, grade: 1,5, Free University of Berlin, 56 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The aim of this paper is to provide a ...
Originally published in 1979, this book represents an effort to bring together the two disciplines at the core of psycholinguistics, psychology and linguistics. It discusses a broad variety of theoretical approaches to psycholinguistics as well as covering a wide range of topics. At the time the book had four goals: to discuss many of the important contemporary issues in psycholinguistics; to explore the different views on major theoretical controversies; to provide an analysis of background literature as a framework in which to evaluate the issues and controversies; and to describe interesting high-quality research currently being done by the authors and some of their colleagues. Today it can be read and enjoyed in its historical context, with many of the chapters still relevant in psycholinguistic research today.
Originally published in 1979, this book represents an effort to bring together the two disciplines at the core of psycholinguistics, psychology and linguistics.
This dissertation, "A Psycholinguistic Study: Investigating Individual Learning Efficiency (ILE) Through the Concepts of Learning Style, Information Processing Path and Energy Transfer Pathway" by Ping-chui, Yik, 易平璀, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: This thesis aimed to use Individual Learning Efficiency to predict the language performance patterns of three groups of individuals respectively from schools of science, business and engineering. Individual Learning Efficiency (ILE) is defined as a ratio incorporating a mathematical concept known as Shannon entropy, which indicates the degree of randomness or disorder of a message source underlying optimized input-output digital designs. Predictions were made at verbal precision meaning that the actual entropies of target message sources (i.e., the degrees of randomness of learners and learning targets as the target message sources involved in the study) were not calculated in bits but were verbally estimated, so as to answer a research question set in the educational context: whether there is a higher chance of better learning performances when the entropies of the learner and the learning target are closer to each other. The application of the ratio ILE (defined as entropy of learner/entropy of learning target) in predicting language performance patterns involved the integration of three concepts, learning style, information processing path and energy transfer pathway, which are respectively from educational, psychological and physical levels of investigation. Integrating the three concepts required three steps: the first step was to identify learning-associated activities with respect to learning style, information processing path and energy transfer pathway through their own implicit time windows, which was a multidisciplinary consideration. The second step sought interdisciplinary understanding in which learning activities identified in relation to the three concepts were aligned with one another using a common time interval against a single linear time line so that any learner and learning target becomes readily countable for the estimation of the entropy of learning targets and learners relative to one another. The third step was a transdisciplinary attempt to bring the time frames of the concept of Shannon entropy and that of learning style (especially the sequential-global style dimension that is analogous to the long-standing field-independent-field-dependent dimension) -- which are mathematical and verbal concepts respectively -- closer together with the help of schematic diagrams composed of Venn diagrams and arrows in order to predict the results of the statistical study based on ILE at verbal precision without calculating in bits the actual entropies of the learners and the learning targets involved. Two simple statistical tests, correlation and t-test, were used to look at the language performance patterns against styles among students of business, engineering and science backgrounds who represent three distinct groups of individuals attributed to their differential degree of reliance on the two contrastive representation systems, mathematics and natural language, in learning. The close match between the verbally predicted results and the actual results suggests that ILE, a ratio which incorporates Shannon entropy, and which indicates a higher learning efficiency when the entropy of a learner is closer to the entropy of a learning target, is highly facilitative to predicting learning performances at verbal precision and that it is immediately open to computational validation as t
This dissertation, "A Psycholinguistic Study: Investigating Individual Learning Efficiency (ILE) Through the Concepts of Learning Style, Information Processing Path and Energy Transfer Pathway" by Ping-chui, Yik, 易平璀, was obtained ...
The study of language acquisition has taken on new meaning in the last decade. Now seen as part of the study of other forms of language variation across time and space, such as dialects and sociolects, and the study of pidgins and Creoles, it can help to provide a new understanding of how language evolves and what directs its development. Dorit Ravid here provides a study of contemporary speakers of Hebrew, focusing in particular on inflectional morphology. She traces language development from childhood to adulthood in Hebrew speakers, and explores strategies of language acquisition and language processing leading to variation in the spoken Hebrew of speakers of different ages and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Dorit Ravid here provides a study of contemporary speakers of Hebrew, focusing in particular on inflectional morphology.
