PSYCHOLINGUISTIC

Lindayati Maukaling

9152035

Tribuana University of Kalabahi

A. BACKGROUND
In all aspects of life, language is very important especially for us as humans. In
everyday life, humans must use language to express what is in their hearts and minds to
others. In its delivery, humans go through several processes of thinking into a language
expressed. Included in the process are language acquisition, language processing in the brain,
language delivery, and so on. When viewed from the aspect of psychology, language is
closely related to one's psychological condition. It will be very different languages that
people who are happy with people who are angry or sad, people who are sick with healthy
people, people who are tired and people who are in a fit state will all be different.
In terms of language acquisition, people who have been educated from childhood to
use mother tongue properly and correctly, will be accustomed to using good and correct
language, inversely proportional to people who have not been educated since childhood to
use language properly and correctly, then they will not get used use it. In addition to the
above, other things related to one's language are biological conditions, in this case nerves.
Neural is a connecting device that makes an idea a language expression.
From the existence of language relations with a person's psychological condition, it is
felt that there is a need for special science (psycholinguistics) that examines it. Therefore, in
this article I will explain how the development of psycholinguistics in a person starts from
the process of acquiring language or language acquisition, how to understand language or
languge comprehension and the language production.

B. DISCUSSION
1. Definition of psycholinguistic
- Psycholinguistics or the psychology of language is a science that discusses the
processes of acquiring and using language in terms of psychology (Nan Bernstein
Ratner, et al. 1998).

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- In general, psycholinguistics studies three main things (Clark & Clark, 1977;
Tanenhaus, 1989):
1. Comprehension: How people understand spoken and written language.
2. Speech Production: How to produce people language.
3. Acquisition: How do people learn language.
- Meanwhile, on Wikipedia, Psycholinguistics is defined as a science that studies
psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use and
understand language.
- The term ‘psycholinguistics’ is a combination of psychology and linguistics. Both are
the branches of sciences. Psychology is defined as the systematic study of human
experience and behavior or as the science that studies the behavior of men and other
animals Knight and Hilgert (in fatchul, 2008).
- There are several branches of psychology, among others, social psychology,
psychology of communication, developmental psychology, educational psychology,
and psychology of language. The last branches of psychology is often called as
psycholinguistics (in fatchul, 2008).
 psycholinguistics is a field of study that combines psychology and linguistics. It
covers language development.
 psycholinguistics is the study of human language –language comprehension,
language production, and language acquisition.

In Agung Prasetyo (2015), there more explanation about psycholinguistic

- Psycholinguistic is language activities

- an utterance or written depend on context. The meaning will be different in different

context

- In complete sentence is not a problem. Ambiguity meaning: It need a context to

understand a certain utterance. Ex. Red zone district means danger zone or postulate
place / has some meaning depend on the circumstance.

How if a person have bilingual language. In human brain has a certain place (cortex) to
place a language, a cortex a language. If in human brain has a stimulus (certain
perception/ comprehension) toward a language, it will make them understand what other

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 speak because he / she has conception in their mind. Therefore it need as much as
stimulus first before he / she understand what other said. If what he / she hear is to much
something new it causes difficulties to understand the language / utterance

Based on the definitions of psycholinguistics above, can I conclude that

psycholinguistics is the science of combination between human language and psychology
that studies about psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to
acquire, use and understand language.

2. Psycholinguistics in language development

Modern research makes use of biology, neuroscience, cognitive science,
linguistics, and information science to study how the brain processes language, and less
so the known processes of social sciences, human development, communication theories
and infant development, among others. There are a number of subdisciplines with non-
invasive techniques for studying the neurological workings of the brain; for example,
neurolinguistics has become a field in its own right. Initial forays into psycholinguistics
were found in philosophical and educational fields, due mainly to their location in
departments other than applied sciences (e.g., cohesive data on how the human brain
functioned).
Psycholinguistics has roots in education and philosophy, and covers the
"cognitive processes" that make it possible to generate a grammatical and meaningful
sentence out of vocabulary and grammatical structures, as well as the processes that make
it possible to understand utterances, words, text, etc. Developmental psycholinguistics
studies children's ability to learn language.

a. Language acquisition
In the large Indonesian dictionary "acquisition" is defined as the process,
method or action of obtaining. Language acquisition is a process that takes place in
children's brains when he acquires his first language or his native language (Chaer,
2009: 167).
The term acquisition is used for the equivalent term English acquisition,
which is the process of mastering the language performed by children naturally when
he learns his native language (native language). The language obtained can be a

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vowel that is in spoken language or speech sounds and can be a sign. Humans have a
biological inheritance that has been born in the form of its ability to communicate in
special human languages and that has nothing to do with intelligence or thought.
Language skills have little correlation with human IQ. The ability to speak normal
children is the same as children who are disabled. Language skills are closely related
to parts of human anatomy and physiology, such as certain parts of the brain that
underlie language and the topography of the cortex that is specific to language

 Language acquisition stage

It is certain that a child born cannot speak directly by arranging words into
sentences according to the rules of the language. There is always a stage to
approach adult grammar. Some linguists divide the language acquisition stage
into pralinguistic and linguistic stages. However, this position is refuted by many
who say that the pralinguistic stage cannot be considered the beginning language
because sounds like crying and whining are controlled by mere stimuli, namely
the child's automatic response to hungry stimulation, pain, desire to be carried,
and feeling happy.
- Babbling Stage.
This stage is also known as the vocalization stage. Children produce different
vowels and consonants such as fricative and nasal. The age of the babbling
baby cannot be determined with certainty, while the ability of chattering
children depends on the neurological development of a child. Once the child
goes through the babbling period, they begin to master the phonetic segments
used to say the words. They learn how to pronounce sequence of segments,
namely silabe-silabe and words. The way children try to master this phonetic
segment is to use the hypothesis-testing theory. According to this theory
children test various hypotheses about how to try to produce the right sound.
- One-Word or Holophrastic Stage
This stage takes place when children are 12-18 months old where a child starts
using a series of repetitive sounds for the same meaning. They have
understood that the sound of the word is related to meaning and begins to use
the first words even though their utterances refer to objects that are

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 encountered everyday. In the opinion of some children's language researchers,
words in this stage have three functions, namely the words are associated with
the child's own behavior or a desire for behavior, to express a feeling, to give
a name to an object. In its form, the spoken words consist of easily
pronounced consonants such as m, p, s, k and vowels such as a, i, u, e.
- Two-Word Phase, One Phrase
This stage takes place at the age of 18-20 months. At this age, the child's
utterance must be interpreted according to the context. At this stage they begin
to think of a simple "subject + predicate" usually consisting of nouns. For
example, the word "Ani toy" means "Ani is playing with toys" or adjectives +
nouns, such as "dirty patu" which means "These shoes are dirty" and so on.
- Telegraphic Tests
At the age of 2 and 3 years, children begin to produce multiple-word
utterances, also called telegraphic utterances. Children have also been able to
form sentences and sort their forms correctly. Even the vocabulary of children
is growing rapidly reaching hundreds of words and the way the pronunciation
of words is increasingly similar to the language of adults.

There is a theory that states that children acquire language by imitating it.
However, Fromkin and Rodman (1993: 403) mention the results of imitation
performed by the child will not be the same as desired by adults. There is another
theory that says that a child learns by reinforcement, that is, if the child learns the
correct utterance will get praise, and vice versa. But this theory has not been
approved one hundred percent by psychologists and psycholinguistic experts. The
truth is that children form rules and arrange their own grammar.

 Language acquisition factors

Children in obtaining the first language vary, some are slow, moderate,
some are fast. This is of course very much influenced by several factors such as
those stated by Chomsky, Piaget, Lenneberg and Slobin as follows:

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 - Natural Factors.
What is meant here is that every child is born with a set of procedures and
language rules called Chomsky Language Acquisition Divice (LAD).
Children are not stimulated to get language, the child will be able to accept
what is happening around him.
- Cognitive Development Factors.
The development of one's language along with cognitive development. Both
have complementary relationships. Piaget in Brainerd as quoted by Ginn
(2006) defines cognitive as something related to intellectual recognition and is
a means of expressing thoughts, ideas, and ideas. Including, cognitive
activities; mental activity, remembering, symbolizing, categorizing or
grouping, solving problems, creating, and imagining. In relation to learning
languages, cognitive is related to the acquisition of one's language.
- Social Background Factors.
Social background includes family structure, social group affiliation, and
cultural environment allowing for serious differences in children's language
acquisition (Vygotsky, 1978). The higher the level of social interaction of a
family, the greater the chance of family members (children) acquiring
language. Conversely the lower the level of social interaction of a family, the
smaller the chances of family members (children) acquiring language.
Another thing that also influences is social status. Children from low
socioeconomic status groups show the development of their vocabulary is less
in accordance with the conditions of their families.

 Language acquisition theory

Following empirical research, there are two main theories about how humans
acquired their first language which was discussed among researchers.
- Nativist Theory (conscience)
Nativist Theory is a theory which states that humans acquire language
naturally This theory became known as the conscience hypothesized by
leneberg and chomsky. Chomsky's theory asserts that language is inherited,
humans from birth have been provided with genetics to speak. Thus the

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 hypothetical bodily instinct is an assumption that states that part or all parts of
language are not obtained or studied, but are determined by the features of a
special conscience feature of the human organism.
- Learning theory
Theory which states that language acquisition is through the process of
learning. As a further explanation of this theory can be described about how a
baby starts speaking. At the stage when the child acquires the system of sound
systems of his mother tongue, he initially pronounces the sound system that
exists in all languages in this world. but because the environment has given a
continuous example of the sound system that is in his mother tongue, and is
motivated to continue to imitate the system of his mother tongue, then what is
finally mastered is his mother tongue system.

b. Language comprehension
1. Inner structure and birth structure

The meaning of a speech can be understood from the sequence of words

contained in the speech, or from the characteristics used in each word. It is not
impossible that a sentence that seems simple turns out to have complex meanings.
And the understanding of a speech cannot always be done only from the form of
the sentence we hear or see, but mainly by the underlying representation.

Example: “John loves Mary more than his brother”

In the example above, it is ambiguous. Because, this could mean "John's

love for Mary is greater than his love for his sister" or "John's love for Mary is
greater than his sister's love for Mary". In other words, the one who loves Mary
can only be john or her sister.

A sentence not only has a birth structure but also has an inner structure. A
person can understand a sentence only if he understands what is contained in the
sentence, not just seen or heard from the sentence.

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2. Proposition
To understand speech we must mix the sounds and words, so that a representation
of the underlying meaning is formed. The units of meaning in sentences are called
propositions. Lobner defines it as a set of referrals of all referring elements and
how they are linked. To understand the sentence of a sentence we need to
understand the propositions expressed by the sentence.
3. Constituents as psychological reality
constituents are not only just cutting sentences that are arbitrary in nature, but just
a little mistake in cutting words will affect hearing and disturb comprehension
because basically the constituents have a strong psychological and syntactic
foundation.
4. Strategies in understanding speech
In understanding a speech, there are three factors that help us: First, factors
related to world knowledge. As members of society, we have lived together with
nature around us. This natural environment gives us knowledge about life in the
world. Some of this knowledge is universal while others are specific about the
communities in which we live. The general knowledge that large-bodied
elephants make us consider elephants the size of a goat is a small elephant. On the
contrary, our knowledge that small-bodied ants make us say that ants that are 2cm
long are large-bodied ants, etc. Thus, the expression of small elephants and large
ants must be understood in the context of world knowledge.
5. Ambiguity
Ambiguous or taxa are more than one meaningful sentence. processing for
understanding, ambiguous sentences require more time to process. This happened
because hearing guessed certain meanings but guessed he was wrong, so he had to
back down again to reprocess his entire interpretation.
6. Word storage
Word storage can we show by showing an object that is usually used to write and
in that object there is ink which then leaves marks on the other we write, then
without thinking we will say "pen". We say without thinking because the word
retrifal process runs so fast it seems like it just automatically goes out. Likewise if

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 we act as listeners, we can understand it as if without thinking even though the
process is very long and complex.

 Factors that affect access to words.

Basically word retrifal is influenced by various factors:
First, the frequency of words, the more often a word is used, the faster we
can call it when we need it. Words such as expecting or closing have a higher
frequency than spreading or forgetting, some people do not even understand what
these last two words mean.
The second factor is the spread of a word that can be easily described or
imagined will be easier to digest and remember. Concrete words, for example, are
easier to remember than abstract words.
The third factor is semantic linkages. Certain words carry a related
meaning closer to certain other words and not to certain other words. If we are
given a big word, it is not impossible that we can quickly rethink small words.
Likewise if we are given the word bird, we might quickly associate it with parrots
or turtles.
The fourth factor is the grammatical category. There is a tendency that
words are stored based on syntactic categories. This can be seen from the tongue
flashes which always manifest in the same syntactic category.
The fifth factor is the phonological factor. Morphemes that sound the same
or similar are stored in adjacent places. This is evident in "forgetfulness"
symptoms (tip of the tongue).

 Theory of meaning
How people understand the meaning of words, two theories are proposed,
namely the theory of features and theories based on knowledge. Feature theory
basically states that words have a set of features, or features that are an integral
part of the word. Dogs say, for example, has an [+ animate] feature, [+ animal], [+
color (usual black, brown, white, punctate)], [+ foot four], [+ ear two], [+ one tail]
, [+ body size], [+ nodding], and so on. These features as a whole form a concept
called a dog.

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 Theory is based on knowledge (knowledge-based the theory). This theory
still relies on the theory of gitur, but is expanded. In this theory not only features
are seen but also the essence and context. Humans not only absorb those features
but also see their essence. Cats, for example, do have features [+ four feet], but it
is not impossible that there are cats who, due to genetic failure, only have three
legs. Likewise if one leg is broken, he will continue to live on three legs. We will
still consider these animals as cats.

c. Language production
In communicating, native speakers need detailed mentality from the level of
discourse to the implementation of their articulation. This mental process involves
several aspects. The first aspect relates to assumptions about interlocutor knowledge
(the person to be spoken to), a sentence will have no meaning for the listener if all the
information in it is new information.
The second aspect is the cooperative principle. Speakers must provide
information that is appropriate, clear, correct, unambiguous, and so on. in addition,
speakers must also pay attention to the pragmatic aspects of their words, for example
the language of ethnic Javanese speakers, the phrase " “ Ibu arep tindak endi?" means
more true and more acceptable if spoken by the child to the mother. However, the
phrase " Ibu arep lungo nang endi?" Will be incorrect and unacceptable if spoken by
the child to the mother
 General Steps in Producing Speeches
The process in speech is divided into four levels, namely:
- Message level, where the message to be delivered is processed
At the message level, speakers gather proposals for the meaning to be
conveyed. For example in the sentence Tutik is feeding his child. Nosos in the
minds of speakers are:
a) There is someone
b) The person is a woman
c) He is married
d) He has children

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 e) He is doing an act
f) The act is to feed the child.
- Functional level, where lexical forms are chosen and given syntactic roles and
functions,
At the functional level, there are two things that are processed. First choose
the lexical form that corresponds to the message to be delivered and the
grammatical information for each of these lexical forms. In the sentence
"Tutik sedang menyuapi anaknya". the word "Tutik" is the name of a known
woman who is used as the perpetrator of an act, an act carried out using the
verb "menyuapi", "anaknya" is a recipient.
The second process is to give a function to the selected words. this process
involves syntactic relationships or grammatical functions. The word "Tutik" is
a function of the subject, the word "anaknya" occupies the function of the
object.

- The positional level at which constituents are formed and affixed is carried out

At the level of positional processing, it is sorted in lexical form for the

utterance to be issued. This arrangement is not based on linear lines, but on a
hierarchical unity of meaning in the example of the phrase " Tuti sedang
menyuapi anaknya". the word "sedang" is related to "menyuapi". Likewise
with - "nya" is related to "child". After the settings are complete, the relevant
affixes are processed, for example in the verb "anak" must be added to the
suffix -i.

- The level of phonology, where the phonological structure of the utterance is

realized.
At the last level, the level of phonology, applies the phonotatic rules of the
language in question. The word "Tutik" follows the Indonesian phonotatic
rules. But "Ketuiek" no. This phonological process is not simple because it is
involved in biological and neurological processes.
 Details of Speech Production
- Discourse Production Planning

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In the process of producing speeches from the planning of the topic to be
explored, then go down to the sentence to be used, and go down again to the
constituents to be chosen. After that, he goes into the implementation of what
will be said. Let's look at this production process one by one in more detail.
a) Discourse Production Planning
Generally this discourse is divided into two types: (1) dialogue and (2)
monologue. The main difference between these two types mainly lies in
the presence or absence of interaction between the speaker and the
listener.
1. Dialogue.
In the dialogue discourse which H. Clark considers as a joint activity
(1994: 994) there are four elements involved: (1) Personnel
(personnel), (2) common ground, (3) joint action , and (4)
contributions.
2. Monologue
Monologue discourse generally has one participant, that is, the person
who speaks (or writes) itself. Of course discourse like this does not
have the same rules as the rules for dialogue. In monologues people
generally follow certain narrative patterns. In terms of the information
to be given, people sort out which ones are worthy of being included
and which ones are not.
Another factor in monologue discourse is the order of presentation.
If we narrate a trip to A, B, and C then it will be difficult if we jump
from A to C, then to B, then to A, then to C again.
b) Sentence Production Planning
After we know what we want to say, then we come to planning the
production of sentences. According to Clark and Clark there are three
categories that need to be processed: propositional content (ilotional
content), illocutionary content, and thematic structure
1. Propositional Content

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 In the category of propositional charge, the speaker determines what
proposition he wants to express; a mother who feeds her child, visits
sick people, reaps rice, or whatever. In this process there are several
things that need to be considered. First, sorting out events or
circumstances. In a discourse that will be spoken in the form of
sentences, we sort out the event or the situation becomes a matter that
seems to be separated.
2. Ilocritical content
After the propositional charge is determined, the speaker determines
his illocutionary strength, that is, the meaning conveyed will be
realized in what kind of sentence. Here the role of speech acts arises.
An intention can be expressed in a representative sentence or
directive. In the context of a travel plan, sentence is not a question,
but an invitation.
3. Thematic Structure
Thematic structures are related to the determination of various
elements in relation to grammatical or semantic functions in
sentences. The speaker determines which one is the subject and which
object. This selection will determine whether the sentence to be
spoken is active or passive.
c) Constituent Production Planning
After the sentence planning is completed, the speaker descends to the level
of the constituents that make up the sentence. Here the word whose
meaning is exactly as desired is chosen here. If only, the reference is to a
man, then, if he hates that person, the choice of his words might be the
jerk or the bastard, etc. Conversely, if the speaker is an admirer of the
man, his choice might be the handsome one.

 Relationship between comprehension and production

One can retry only if he has stored the word in his previous memory. In
other words, a word can be produced only if there is prior comprehension.
Because of this, production problems cannot be separated from comprehension.

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 Even in up-to-date studies, especially by psychologists from connection groups,
(Bock & Levelt 1994; Bock & Griffin 2000) production is a back-mirror of the
comprehension of people receiving input and then being stored in memory. In the
production of the said word, it is searched again and then tested.
To find the word, of course an eliminative process is needed with words
utilizing the features in this word, both semantic, syntactic, and phonological
features.

C. CONCLUSION
Based on explanation above, can i conclude that, psycholinguistics is the science of
human language that studies about psychological and neurobiological factors that enable
humans to acquire, use and understand language.
psycholinguistics, among other things, studies how a language is acquired or learned,
and then used. In this case, it covers the topics of language acquisition and language learning,
language and brain, and bilingualism (as a result of learning two or more languages).

REFERENCES

Fatchul (2008) psycholinguistics. Retrieved from https://fatchulfkip.wordpress.com/2008/03/

19/psycholinguistics?

Wikipedia.org. psycholinguistics. Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psycholinguistics

Wordpress.com (2011) pengertian psikolinguistik. retrieved from https://takberhentiberharap.wor

dpress.com/2011/05/11/pengertian-psikolinguistik/

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