Language is the subject of this exploration, understood in its virulent sense. A fragment from Nietzsche introduces its central perspective: "words dilute and brutalize; words depersonalize; words make the uncommon common."
Although language can still be described by scholars in such phrases as "the most significant and colossal work that the human spirit has evolved," this characterization occurs now in a context of extremity in which we are forced to call the aggregate of the work of the "human spirit" into question. Similarly, if in Coward and Ellis' estimation, the most "significant feature of twentieth-century intellectual development" has been the light shed by linguistics upon social reality, this focus hints at how fundamental our scrutiny must yet become in order to comprehend maimed modern life.
Psychology
Gene Zimmer, defines"psychology" is the combination of two terms - study (ology) and soul (psyche), or mind. The derivation of the word from Latin gives it this clear and obvious meaning:
The study of the soul or mind.
This meaning has been altered over the years until today, this is not what the word means at all. The subject of psychology, as studied in colleges and universities, currently has very little to do with the mind, and absolutely nothing to do with the soul or spirit.
It is important to understand that words and ideas are supposed to refer to something. "The large tree in the front yard" refers to an actual thing that can be seen, touched and experienced. "The man walking his little dog last night at sunset" refers to an actual event that can be seen, observed and experienced. The realm of mind is an actual realm that can be experienced, and at one time there were words that accurately referred to this realm.
Let's see what a few dictionaries have to say and how a word could alter and lose its true and actual meaning.
"Psyche" is defined as:
1. The spirit or soul.
2. The human mind.
3. In psychoanalysis, the mind functioning as the center of thought, emotion, and behavior.
And defining "soul", we have:
1. the spiritual or immortal elements in a person.
2. a person's mental or moral or emotional nature.
Most of us would agree we have a "psyche" per the above definitions in the sense of mind, thought, and emotions. Most would also agree they have a "soul" per the second definition above relating to man's mental, moral or emotional nature. We might all have different notions about what these ultimately are, but few could sanely disagree they exist.
The derivation of "psyche" comes from Latin and the Greek psukhe - breath, life, soul. To get a better "feel" for this term try to think of it as the invisible animating principle or entity that occupies, interacts with and directs the physical body.
Psycholinguistics
Richard Nordquist, defines psycholinguistics is the study of the mental aspects of language and speech--a branch of both linguistics and psychology.
Observations:
- "Psycholinguists study how word meaning, sentence meaning, and discourse meaning are computed and represented in the mind. They study how complex words and sentences are composed in speech and how they are broken down into their constituents in the acts of listening and reading. In short, psycholinguists seek to understand how language is done. . . .
"In general, psycholinguistic studies have revealed that many of the concepts employed in the analysis of sound structure, word structure, and sentence structure also play a role in language processing. However, an account of language processing also requires that we understand how these linguistic concepts interact with other aspects of human processing to enable language production and comprehension."
(William O'Grady, et al., Contemporary Linguistics: An Introduction. Bedford/St. Martin's, 2001) - "Psycholinguistics . . . draws on ideas and knowledge from a number of associated areas, such as phonetics, semantics and pure linguistics. There is a constant exchange of information between psycholinguists and those working in neurolinguistics, who study how language is represented in the brain. There are also close links with studies in artificial intelligence. Indeed, much of the early interest in language processing derived from the AI goals of designing computer programs that can turn speech into writing and programs that can recognize the human voice."
(John Field, Psycholinguistics: A Resource Book for Students. Routledge, 2003) - "Psycholinguistics has classically focused on button press tasks and reaction time experiments from which cognitive processes are being inferred. The advent of neuroimaging opened new research perspectives for the psycholinguist as it became possible to look at the neuronal mass activity that underlies language processing. Studies of brain correlates of psycholinguistic processes can complement behavioral results, and in some cases . . . can lead to direct information about the basis of psycholinguistic processes."
(Friedmann Pulvermüller, "Word Processing in the Brain as Revealed by Neurophysiological Imaging." The Oxford Handbook of Psycholinguistics, ed. by M. Gareth Gaskell. Oxford Univ. Press, 2009)
REFERENCE
Gene Zimmer, psycholinguistic/http://www.sntp.net/psychology_definition.htm
Richard Nordquist, About.com Guide/ http://grammar.about.com/od/pq/g/psycholinguisticsterm.htm
