In our chat today jo, one of her new posters, mentioned that she is a psycholinguist.

Could you explain what that is, jo? You'd said its a bit much to go into in the fast format of a chat.

Thank you.

ah... a toughy.

The short answer is that it is the study of the relationship between language and the cognitive and behavioral characteristics of those who use it.

The longer answer is:

Psycholinguists presume that language changes as the internal environment changes, or as the external psycho/social environment changes. Thus people employ more formal linguistic structures in a classroom environment, for example, than they might use at a cocktail party.

Interestingly enough, syntax changes more than vocabularly in almost every instance studied in the literature when people are placed in situations involving "making a good impression."

And when a person wishes to invoke authority, syntax becomes stilted or twisted and the use of specific jargon increases. Hence the use of legalese, bureaucrat-ese, medical-ese, etc. Convoluted syntax and excessive jargon is especially common amongst newer members of a designated class: recent law school graduates, new military recruits, etc. As the person becomes more secure in her role her language becomes less stilted and job-specific.

My dissertation was on Authoritarian Language Structures in Heirarchical Institutions.

Ain't that a mouthful? LOL

Serendipitously, Geoff Pullum gets ratty about it.

Uh-oh! You're not gonna pscyhoanalyze everything we say, are you Jo? We're not really crazy, you know. No, it's them, not us!

Tinman

Oh, Jo, that sounds fascinating. Sometimes when I am speaking before an audience, suddenly I find myself using words that I never use. I surprise myself even! That must be the reason.

Oh, and aput, I couldn't get your link to work. Perhaps it is only my computer?

Language Log had some problems this morning. They're back up now, and are usually quite reliable.

edit Oh they're down again now. I've never known them have problems before.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: aput,

Ohhhh, NOOOOO! Psycholinguistics is one of the classes I flunked! All this talk abut middens made me think you were a nice, decent anthropologist or archaeologist. But then, I suppose a psycholinguist could be a verbal archaeologist of sorts. Anyhow, welcome to the lingistic loony bin! (There, is THAT high-falootin enough jargon for ya?)