Psycholinguistics

CHAPTER6 Psycholinguistics HERBERT H. CLARK AND MIJA M. VANDER WEGE Psycho linguistics is the study of the processes Modern psycholinguistics is diverse in its by which people use language. In conversa- perspectives, theories, approaches, and goals. tion, people engage in actions that range from At its center is how people process language- producing and interpreting speech to steering from producing speech sounds and under- the course of the conversation--determining standing words to participating in discourse. what topics are taken up when. In reading, But it also includes first and second language people apply many of the same processes, acquisition, aphasia, speech disorders, read- but by using a skiii that has taken years to ing, and many other issues. Unlike many areas learn. In writing, authors compose, edit, and of psychology, psycho linguistics has borrow- rewrite to engineer just the right experience ed heavily from other disciplines-linguistics, for their readers. When we think of language philosophy, computer science, sociology, and use, we tend to focus on words, phrases, and anthropology. It has also drawn upon broad sentences, but these are often parts of com- evidence-laboratory experiments, field ex- posite actions that include pointing and other periments, linguistic intuitions, computer sim- gestures as well. ulations, large corpora of conversations, clin- Psycholinguistics was launched in 1900 ical case studies, and much more. There is with the publication of Wilhelm Wundt's Die no royal road to knowledge in the study of Sprache (Language) as the first two vol- psycholinguistics. umes of his monumental Volkerpsychologie. In this chapter, we focus on the core of Wundt' s enterprise was broad, and it led to psycholinguistics-the elements we believe such distinguished works as Karl Buhler's make it a field. Our goal is not to review the Sprachtheorie (Language Theory) in 1934. field, but to frame it. It is to describe the foun- By the middle of the 20th century, psycholin- dational issues and principles. We begin with guistics had run into rough weather and, at communication (why people use language in least in America, had almost disappeared. the first place), then take up speaking and lis- In the 1960s, it was revived with Noam tening, and finally tum to the mental repre- Chomsky's (1957, 1965) vision of language sentations necessary for using language. and linguistics, where it often got narrowed to the study of the ''psychological reality of COMMUNICATION linguistic structures." By its hundredth birth- day, psycholinguistics had matured into a field To use language-to speak or listen, to read in its own right. or write-is to take action (Austin, 1962; 209 !'· 210 Psycholinguistics Levinson, 1983; Searle, 1969, 1975b; Sacks, what they are told. In plays, actors recite lines l Schegloff, & Jefferson, 1974). People choose already memorized. But in spontaneous con- to speak or not to speak, and they try, or do versation, speakers decide what they want to not try, to attend to, identify, understand, and talk about, plan their own words, and pro- react to what others say. Psycholinguistics is duce them. Managing all three processes- about the social and cognitive processes by especially while under time pressure-is a which people carry out these actions. delicate act of juggling. Spontaneous speak ing is clearly different from reading aloud, repeating back, and reciting. But how are they Language Settings alike, and how are they different? And how do Language gets used in a wide range of settings listening, writing, and reading change with the (Clark, 1996). It atises as spoken language setting? in personal and nonpersonal settings (e.g., One setting is basic, and that is face-to-face face-to-face vs. lectures), institutional set- conversation (Clark, 1996; Fillmore, 1981). It tings (courts, church, etc.), fictional settings is the only setting that is universal to all the (movies, plays), and private settings (talking world's peoples, about a sixth of whom are to oneself). It comes as written language in illiterate. It is the setting in which all of the just as many settings-personal letters, news- world's languages evolved before the spread paper stories, institutional letters and labels, of literacy. It is the only setting that does fictional novels and contic strips, and private not require specialized skills such as reading, notes to oneself. With the invention of new writing, or oratory. It is the setting in which communication technologies, there seems to children acquire the rudiments of their first be no end to the settings in which people use language; learning from books and television language. comes later. Other settings can be viewed as The processes that people use in these set- secondary to, or derivative from, face-to-face tings range just as widely as the settings them- conversation. People understand what they selves. It is self-evident that speaking and read, for example, largely by treating printed listening are different from writing and read- language as if it were a representation of spo- ing. Speaking requires the execution of vocal ken language. sounds, words, and phrases in a tight temporal So, psycholinguistics must account first pacing. Writing, in contrast, requires a manual and foremost for face-to-face conversation. skill, learned over years of training, which It must go beyond reading aloud, repeat- can be done at any pace and with as much ing back, and reciting, and understanding editing and rewriting as needed. Listening re- this speech. It must account for how people quires the aural skill of identifying sounds, plan, speak, listen, and gesture-how they words, and phrases as they are produced in communicate-in the give-and-rake of spon- time. Reading, in contrast, depends on a visual taneous dialogue. Eventually, it must account skill, also learned over years of training, which for all language settings, but these accounts can be done at any pace, with as much reread- differ from setting to setting. ing as needed. Speaking, listening, reading, and writing Language in Joint Activities themselves change radically with the setting. Take speaking, for example. On television, People use language to do things. In all but news anchors read aloud what is already writ- one of the settings we .have reviewed, people ten. In weddings, the bride and groom repeat use language to do things with others. Using Communication 211 language is inherently social, and that is Alan and Beth must coordinate on its partic nowhere more evident than in face-to-face ipants, timing, and content. (1) Who the par- conversation-the primary setting. But what ticipants are gets established when Alan ad- is dialogue for? To answer this question, we dresses Beth with "hi" and she acknowledges . draw on 30 years of close analysis of spon- (probably by nodding and meeting Alan's taneous conversation recorded in a variety gaze). (2) The time they start is established of settings (e.g., Atkinson & Heritage, 1984; when Alan says "hi," and Beth, with her nod Button & Lee, 1987; Drew & Heritage, 1992; and eye-gaze, agrees. (3) The content of their Sacks et a!., 1974; Schegloff, Jefferson, & basic activity-its public goal-gets estab- Sacks, 1977). lished in two steps as Alan proposes the pur- Joint ·activities are activities that two or chase of four size-C flashlight batteries, and more people can only carry out by coordinat- Beth agrees to the proposal by turning to ing with each other (see Clark, 1996). Such get them. Each piece of the dialogue is de- examples include one person helping another signecl to coordinate a piece of the basic joint person put on his or her coat; four musi- activity. cians playing a string quartet; people playing Simple as this example is, it illustrates a game of football or chess or poker; a per- several points. First, people distinguish basic son buying goods from a clerk in a store; two from coordinating activities. If Alan were lawyers negotiating a contract; and two people asked what he did in the drug store, he would gossiping. The participants in each activity, answer, "I bought four batteries," not "I talked as distinguished from bystanders, assume par- to the server" (even though he did). The pur- ticular roles (e.g., dealer vs. players in poker) chase was primary, and the talk was only as they presuppose or establish common goals secondary-in support of the purchase. Sec- (e.g., completing the poker game) and even ond, people coordinate on basic activities in pursue their own private agendas. Joint activ- increments. Alan and Beth first establish the ities have coordinated beginnings, ends, and participants and starting time ("Hi" plus the subsections, and the participants have con- nod), then a prerequisite for Alan's order ventional andnonconventional procedures for ("Do you have size C flashlight batteries?" achieving this coordination (e.g., dealing plus "Yes, sir"), and then Alan's order proper cards, saying "I raise you ten," etc.). Finally, ("I'll have four please" plus her turning away). people often engage in more than one joint Third, the participants' actions depend turn- activity at the same time or intermittently by -turn on the actions of the other participants. (e.g., gossiping and eating dinner). Beth, for example, could have refused Alan's Dialogue is a means of coordinating "Hi" with "Uh, wait a minute" or "Sorry, I'm actions in joint activities. Take this brief ex- busy." Or she could have said "No, sir" instead change at a drug store counter between Alan, a of "Yes, sir," and Alan would have followed customer, and Beth, the server (Merritt, 1976, up with another direction. These features are p. 324); characteristic of joint activities. (1) Alan Hi.

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