Language Comprehension and Production
Language Comprehension and Production
Psychologists have long been interested in language. It was motivated by Chomsky’s work in linguistics, and by his claim that the special properties of language require special mechanisms to handle it. The special feature of language on which Chomsky focused was its productivity. Early psycholinguists described our comprehension and production of language in terms of the rules that were postulated by linguists (Fodor et al. 1974). As the field of psycholinguistics developed, it became clear that theories of sentence comprehension and production cannot be based in any simple way on linguistic theories; psycholinguistic theories must consider the properties of the human mind as well as the structure of the language (Fodor et al. 1974).
Language comprehension, basically, is the ability to understand language. However, this ability is much more complex than it seems on the surface. Language comprehension is more complicated than it might at first appear (Mark Ylvisaker 2008). Scovel claimed that understanding language, like producing it, is such an automatic task that it may appear to be a relatively straightforward process (1998: 50). Language comprehension develops along with the brain and is able to be enchanced with the use of gestures. Though it is unknown exactly how early comprehension is fully developed in children, gestures are undoubtedly useful for understanding the language around us. With time, comprehension may be able to be fully understood (Kelly et al. 2009).
Comprehension involves much more than just sounds, letters, and lexical meanings, it also involves the semantics of sentences. Psycholinguists first began to examine the comprehension of sentences by basing their research on the model of sentence grammar originally proposed by Chomsky in the 1950s. In comprehension of sentences is very important Automated Transition Networks (ATNs) which can be used to
Psychologists have long been interested in language. It was motivated by Chomsky’s work in linguistics, and by his claim that the special properties of language require special mechanisms to handle it. The special feature of language on which Chomsky focused was its productivity. Early psycholinguists described our comprehension and production of language in terms of the rules that were postulated by linguists (Fodor et al. 1974). As the field of psycholinguistics developed, it became clear that theories of sentence comprehension and production cannot be based in any simple way on linguistic theories; psycholinguistic theories must consider the properties of the human mind as well as the structure of the language (Fodor et al. 1974).
Language comprehension, basically, is the ability to understand language. However, this ability is much more complex than it seems on the surface. Language comprehension is more complicated than it might at first appear (Mark Ylvisaker 2008). Scovel claimed that understanding language, like producing it, is such an automatic task that it may appear to be a relatively straightforward process (1998: 50). Language comprehension develops along with the brain and is able to be enchanced with the use of gestures. Though it is unknown exactly how early comprehension is fully developed in children, gestures are undoubtedly useful for understanding the language around us. With time, comprehension may be able to be fully understood (Kelly et al. 2009).
Comprehension involves much more than just sounds, letters, and lexical meanings, it also involves the semantics of sentences. Psycholinguists first began to examine the comprehension of sentences by basing their research on the model of sentence grammar originally proposed by Chomsky in the 1950s. In comprehension of sentences is very important Automated Transition Networks (ATNs) which can be used to
References: Fodor, J., T.G. Bever & M.F Garrett, 1974.The Psychology of Language. New York: McGraw-Hill. Kelly, S., Maris E. & Özyüre A., Two sides of the same coin: speech and gesture mutually interact to enhance comprehension. 6 Feb. 2009. Colgate University, Hamilton. Levelt, W. J. M. 1989. Speaking: from intention to articulation. Cambridge: MIT Press. Mark Ylvisaker, Ph.D, available at http://www.projectlearnet.org/tutorials/language_comprehension.html, accessed on April 2008. Scovel, T. 1998. Psycholinguistics. Oxford: Oxford University Press.