Psycholinguistics

Aims

Aims

This module provides an overview of issues in psycholinguistics. It will focus on different
levels of representation and processing (speech, words, sentences, discourse) and summarise
relevant evidence from illusions, errors (slips of the tongue/ear, comprehension errors),
Reaction Time, eye movement, together with results from developmental and acquired
disorders.

The module will cover a selection of the following areas (not all areas will be covered each
time the module is offered):

 Speech perception, comprehension, and production
 Speech errors
 Lexical Access
 Morphological Processing
 Syntactic Processing
 Discourse Processing
 Experimental methods in psycholinguistics
 Language acquisition and breakdown
 Language in the brain (a brief introduction)

At the end of the module the student should:

 Have a good understanding of key issues in psycholinguistics
 Be familiar with methods in psycholinguistic research
 Be familiar with major results in the areas of psycholinguistics covered
 Be able to critically evaluate some of the issues involved in psycholinguistics

Programme

Programme

Contact hours

The course lasts for one term and is taught for three hours per week (two hours of lecture and one seminar hour).

Teaching programme

The module will explore issues in the study of language as a source of evidence about the human mind, touching upon a large variety of topics:

• speech perception,
• lexical access,
• morphological processing,
• syntactic processing.

Experimentation in psycholinguistics is covered in some of these areas.

Teaching materials

A reading pack will be provided and supplemented by handouts that summarise lecture topics not covered in the reading pack.

Assessment

Assessment

Formative work

• one formative exercise

Assessment

• two short essays