A Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics David Crystal

396 psycholexicology
interest, frighten, love and upset, and associated forms are illustrated by such
passive constructions as be amazed at and be interested in. A distinction is often
drawn between experiencer–subject constructions, such as The cat is scared of
the noise, and experiencer–object constructions, such as The noise frightened
the cat. Psych-movement is an operation which moves the object of a psych verb
into the subject position, leaving the former subject as a prepositional phrase:
Mike upsets me becomes I am upset with Mike.
psycholexicology (n.)
see lexicology
psycholinguistics (n.) A branch of linguistics which studies the correlation
between linguistic behaviour and the psychological processes thought to underlie
that behaviour. There are two possible directions of study. One may use language
as a means of elucidating psychological theories and processes (e.g. the role of
language as it affects memory, perception, attention, learning, etc.), and for this
the term psychological linguistics is sometimes used. Alternatively, one may
investigate the effects of psychological constraints on the use of language (e.g.
how memory limitations affect speech production and comprehension).
It is the latter which has provided the main focus of interest in linguistics, where
the subject is basically seen as the study of the mental processes underlying
the planning, production, perception and comprehension of speech, and investigations
typically proceed by examining linguistic performance through smallscale
experimental tasks. A theory-driven approach is also encountered, in which
evidence to support a point of linguistic theory (often in relation to generative
grammar) accumulates using such techniques as adult grammaticality judgements.
The subject now includes a large number of research domains, notably
child language acquisition, second language acquisition, language processing,
linguistic complexity, the relationship between linguistic and cognitive universals,
the study of reading, language pathology, and species specificity. See also
developmental linguistics.
psychological reality
see realistic grammar
pulmonic (adj.) In phonetics the usual term to describe activity associated
with the lungs. The pulmonic airstream mechanism, for example, refers to
the use of the lungs to initiate an airflow for speech production. Most human
speech involves pulmonic sounds.
pulse theory
see syllable
punctual (adj.) (punct) A term used in the grammatical analysis of aspect,to
refer to a momentary event, thought of as having no temporal duration; it thus contrasts
with durative or continuous events, where a period of time is involved.
pure tone see tone (2)
pure vowel A term used in phonetics referring to a vowel sound with no perceived
change in quality during a syllable, as in pot or pit. Alternatively known
as a monophthong, its opposite is ‘gliding vowel’ (see glide (2)) or diphthong.