Questions that are about the neurobiological and psychological factors that affect the acquisition, comprehension and utilisation of the language in human beings.
0
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0answers
32 views
Can we use the reverse of mental priming to get out of the 'Mary's Room' problem?
So there is this semantics/psycholinguistics concept called mental-priming, which says for a concept called 'red' nearby concepts like apple, color, danger etc. 'light up' . Can we teach Mary, what ...
4
votes
0answers
73 views
Selective fluency - is it a thing?
I speak 4 languages, and I have the least exposure to my native language, since I never lived in the region where it's spoken. My only exposure to it is speaking to my parents, and some TV. I grew up ...
3
votes
3answers
36 views
Precise timing measurement in Praat / .wav files
When analyzing .wav files in Praat, total time duration and target speech segments are represented down to 6 decimals. For example: 154.900000 seconds (borrowed from a Google image screenshot). ...
10
votes
1answer
127 views
Why is [la] widely used as a substitution for singing? Is it a worldwide phenomenon?
When people sing without knowing or using the text, they often sing as lalalala...
1
vote
0answers
45 views
How is a meaningful sentence or paragraph constructed?
I don't have a formal background of linguistics, but I'd like to know how a sentence or paragraph becomes meaningful to a reader, and how one can construct that. I think it falls to the areas of ...
1
vote
1answer
57 views
Linguistic theory of “signs”
First of all thank you all for taking the time to read me.
I have been entrusted in the language course of the career I am studying to read the theory of the sign of Ferdinand de Saussure. My ...
5
votes
0answers
65 views
Research on development of language of modality in children 8-12?
Let me quickly introduce myself to provide a context for my questions. My PhD research focuses on ways that we can teach primary school children (9-12) ways of handling complex, contradictory and ...
0
votes
0answers
61 views
The current state of the study of languages on the brain and thought processes
As a premise, I'm not a linguistic student nor have I really any experience in this discipline so I ask for forgiveness should my question be naive or not studied by the Linguistic discipline or ...
1
vote
0answers
121 views
Is there any “standard” definition of “linguistic input”?
Recently, I've started wondering how to characterize "linguistic input" and realized that the notion is very rarely unpacked. It seems as if everyone takes it to be obvious, and immediately goes to ...
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1answer
95 views
Evidence proving lingustic perception of speech in brain?
Is there any evidence that speech is perceived linguistically, meaning is there evidence that shows that speech in the brain is perceived as phonemes, morphemes, and so on?
I was thinking whether ...
1
vote
0answers
90 views
What only native speakers and native writers (?) know
Even after many years, even after getting proficient in a foreign language, non-native speakers won't lose their foreign accent.
Is there an equivalent to this for non-native writers? Will be ...
0
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0answers
127 views
Can a child learn a second language only by hearing it over the telephone?
Hi! This question is really important to me personally and I would love to hear from children-learning-experts as well as anybody who made a relevant experience in this area. Some background first: My ...
1
vote
0answers
44 views
dealing with those responses before target offset in a priming experiment
We conducted a priming lexical decision experiment, and the response time was calculated from the target onset. However when we cleaned the data, we found that some responses were given before the ...
3
votes
3answers
258 views
How would a trained linguist describe this hypothesis of Symbolic Leverage
Context
Two economics students are attempting to describe a concept of language, but do not know of any formally-recognized terms or research that explain this concept.
They believe there is an ...
2
votes
0answers
80 views
Are there any good individualistic measures of linguistic conservatism?
I am currently examining how differing levels of genderisation across languages (French, Finnish, and Norwegian) affects self-perception and the social perception of others through the utilisation of ...
8
votes
1answer
218 views
Does capitalizing nouns improve readability?
In German, one capitalizes the nouns in a sentence. In the video Life in Germany - Ep. 42: English vs. German, an American claims that capitalizing the nouns makes it easier to understand a sentence.
...
7
votes
4answers
1k views
Are there languages with no first person?
Fiction is rife with characters who always speak in third person. Often, such characters are portrayed as having a native language or culture that lacks the concept of a first person, and hence they ...
3
votes
1answer
128 views
Experiment of creating an artificial language by cycles of memorizing errors
Once I saw an experiment on a documentary which a simple artificial language (just a set of ten words or something like that) was artificially created by a recurring process of memorizing errors of ...
2
votes
1answer
303 views
How and when do French children learn to select between masculine and feminine forms of words when referring to themselves?
I am interested in what knowledge we have regarding the process by which a young child acquiring French as a first language learns to choose correctly between the masculine and feminine forms of ...
1
vote
1answer
5k views
Reading a word wrong, but reading it correctly after trying again
In several occasions, while reading, it has happened to me that when re-reading a sentence, I find out I read it wrong the first time; every time it is only one letter the one that I get wrong, but I ...
2
votes
0answers
169 views
Saying words aloud to confirm/disprove accuracy of written language
I had a really interesting thought the other day:
Is oral language dominant/superior in some way to written language?
I bring this up because every time I need to correct or edit my written words (I ...
2
votes
2answers
1k views
What does “psychological reality of sound” mean ?
I am taking an introduction course about linguistics.
When my teacher was trying to explain the difference between phonetics and phonology she said something like:
"PHONETICS is study of physical ...
0
votes
1answer
284 views
Linguistics relativity and linguistic determinism
What is the difference between linguistic relativity and linguistic determinism ?
any suggestions for books to read concerning these topics !
5
votes
1answer
169 views
To which extent are people’s perceptions of their own pronunciation influenced by the language’s orthography?
In my experience, literate native speakers of a language tend to assume that the language’s orthography is significantly more phonetic than it actually is or, with other words, tend to think that ...
3
votes
2answers
4k views
Sapir-Whorf vs. Chomsky
Can somebody let me know if this is a reasonable explanation for how the two theories are similar and different? This is not for homework, I'm just try to understand the difference, and my textbook ...
2
votes
0answers
133 views
Does understanding free word order require a distinct cognitive process?
Abbreviate 'a language with free word order' to FWOL (eg: 1, 2, 3, 4). I exemplify with Latin.
When trying to read a FWOL, I must firstly consciously determine the lexical categories of each word, ...
7
votes
3answers
684 views
Do animals have foreign languages?
Humans living in different parts of the world develop different languages; humans living in the same area speak the same language in order to be able to communicate with each other.
We know that other ...
8
votes
1answer
4k views
Why do some people speak/whisper the words they are reading?
Not sure if this is the right stack exchange site but here goes..
Couple of people at my workplace seem to whisper or quietly speak the material they read. They do this routinely, and they speak more ...
1
vote
0answers
246 views
Psycholinguistics: any interesting studies in personality switching withing language?
I'm workiong on a school project and I want to see if there are any studies made to the following matter.
We all know what a code siwtch is , I wonder if there's something similar in personality, ...
0
votes
1answer
91 views
Does word TA comes from historically, or a psychically to many languages on earth?
Does word TA comes from historically, or a psychically to many languages on earth?
Ta, sumerian -root
Ta, english -thank
Ta, mongolian -grateful and respectful calling of "you"
etc
4
votes
4answers
368 views
Does learning ancestral languages enrich a daughter language?
[Grammarphobia.com:] The study, published in 1973, offered this breakdown of sources [of English vocabulary]:
Latin: 28.34%; French: 28.3%;
Old and Middle English, Old Norse, and Dutch: 25%; ...
0
votes
1answer
121 views
Are there words that induce semantic satiation more or less quickly than other words?
Some time back, I noticed that the word "amongst" induces semantic satiation for me very quickly. I don't know why, but that particular word stops making sense to me in very short order, and to be ...
4
votes
1answer
158 views
Is there a term for a made-up synonym or analogy to describe a forgotten word?
(I'm not a linguist, just generally interested in languages, so forgive me if I lack the appropriate vocabulary.)
There are some examples here, but the general gist is that someone forgets a word (in ...
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vote
0answers
133 views
Memorability of words?
I'm asking this here as I'm not seeing a psycho-linguistic group, and I think that is what I'm looking at.
I'm hoping there is some degree of crossover.
Is there a specific word or phrase used that ...
8
votes
1answer
202 views
How can I embed language proficiency assessment within an unrelated experiment design?
I'm in the process of designing a self-paced-reading & a grammaticality-judgment-task experiment, which should be performed by second language learners. It is crucial to the study is how the ...
4
votes
2answers
217 views
Do individuals have an Occam’s razor for word meanings?
Background and Example
On the German Stack Exchange, we had a lengthy discussion regarding the meaning of the word Gefäß. It was undisputed that a Gefäß is:
an item which can contain liquids
movable
...
1
vote
1answer
162 views
How to cope with many languages at the same time [closed]
I am a student who knows English, and whose mother tongue is Russian. I started studying English around 15 years ago and never put any effort into it. I just grew organically and managed to get to ...
0
votes
1answer
238 views
Is the semantic component of a generative grammar especially difficult to incorporate in psycholinguistic proccessing models? [closed]
It is often said that it is difficult to match up the structure rules of a grammar with psychologically realistic models of competence. I was wondering if the semantic component was especially ...
3
votes
0answers
294 views
Two tasks in one experiment design (self-paced-reading & grammaticality judgment)
For experiment design experts, I want to know if it's possible to design an experiment on PsychoPy or Open Sesame in which the subject does a self paced reading (with measuring the reading times for ...
4
votes
1answer
410 views
Language transfer for second language learners (French-English)
How does language transfer occur from French to English within native french speakers' mind? Can we observe this phenomenon ?
4
votes
2answers
230 views
Reference for help in identifying the abnormal syntax or use of language in psychotic individuals
I have a job in which I must try to differentiate between persons who are actually psychotic and those who are faking psychosis, and it is often quite difficult. I would like to identify ...
3
votes
0answers
123 views
L1 memories being recalled in my L2
The situation is as follows: I have been studying my L2 for approximately 4 years. I have spent a total of 10 months immersed in the L2 environment. My current stint has been for 5 months and counting....
3
votes
0answers
350 views
Psycholinguistic/Sociolinguistic theories of lying and/or deception
That is a very broad question, I understand. I am working in a project where my aim is to detect linguistic features of deception as a person is speaking or writing. Some work has been done for ...
5
votes
2answers
1k views
Is 'It' anaphoric or cataphoric, and what is its antecedent/postcedent?
Question 1a: What does 'It' refer to in the following sentence:
It was clearly in the mood to place acknowledgements at the bottom of questions.
The context for the above sentence is provided in ...
3
votes
2answers
428 views
What is the sociocultural purpose of banning slang in schools?
There was an article in the Guardian recently about a headteacher in the Black Country banning the use of local dialect in school:
(http://www.theguardian.com/educa...)
He says he's seeing children ...
1
vote
1answer
243 views
The manifestation of creativity in written language
I am working on a project where the aim is to create a dictionary of creativity terms. I am a scholar of social psychology and marketing, and the aim the project is to be able to track ideas and ...
7
votes
2answers
535 views
Methods for meaning extraction
Let someone wants to know what some word (concrete as "chair" or abstract as "happiness") mean. What methods, experimental techniques are there for extracting word's meaning? I found next ways:
Study ...
3
votes
0answers
440 views
There is evidence that domesticated animals (cats or dogs) understand human language?
Some pet owners seem to be able to speak to their cats or dogs. Is there any evidence that animals understand human languages?
EDIT: By understand, i mean understanding of spoken language and ...
2
votes
0answers
253 views
What can dialectology contribute to psycho- or neurolinguistics - or the other way around?
Dialectology is the study of geographical varieties of a language. The study of (for example) older dialects of English (such as the dialect spoken in the Northeast of England around Newcastle) and ...
5
votes
1answer
422 views
Body parts and metaphor
Across languages, body parts are used as part of a metaphor, whether it is in an idiom or in a phrasal construction.
Do any know of any survey like academic paper that investigates the whys and hows ...
