PSYCHOLOGY LINGUISTICS

A. The Definition of Psycholinguistics
Hartman and Stork (1994: 189), Sharad (2000: 149), and Varshney (185: 295) have similarity in conclulding what psycholinguisticx is: a branch of linguistics which studies the relationship between the manner of psychology and language. Then this science uses a concept of linguistics to explain the process of psychology concerned with language acquisition and language use.
In the other hand, Trask (1957: 179), Tarigan (1986) and Gleitman are more focused on the production (synthesis) and recognition (analysis), so it is more competitive.

B. Dimension of Psychology in Language
1. The Controversion of Rasionalist-Empiric
The appearance of behaviorism is a part of the reaction to the shape of structuralism in America. This theory defends "the originality of experimental approach target" and as the denial to the introspection as reliable method.
2. Perception and Memory in Language
3. Thinking and Learning
Learning is a process where a behavior appears or fixed through a sequence of reaction or situation (or stimulus) which takes place.
4. Knowledge of self-achievement
5. Transfer; i.e. the knowledge which we have learnt before that affect our result of learning process.
Kinds of thinking:
- Associative thinking
- Controlled thinking
6. Thinking and Language

C. The Theory of Transformation in Language
The theory of transformation was found by Noam Chomsky of M.I.T in his book: Syntactic Structures, in 1957. This theory developed since 1957 to 1965, when Chomsky published his second book, Aspects of the Theory of Syntax. Emmon Bach explained that stage as: "Classical Transformation Grammar".
In 1933, Leonard Bloomfield, a linguist published a book about his behaviourism views about facts of languages, i.e. "stimulus and response" or
Sà + Rà.
Bloomfield stated two fundamentals: phonem and morphem. George L. Trager regulated the teaching of "separating of stages" which produces "pre-condition of grammatical analysis" as Kenneth L. Pike inquired.

D. The Theory of Classical Transformation
Here are the describtion of transformation theory, taken from Syntactic Structure of Noam Chomsky's.
The development of language and the cognitive development.
Cognitive aspects of language learning.
Piaget's theory as explanatory cognitive theory.
The era of senses movement.
The era of pre-operational.
The era of concrete operation.
The era of formal operation.
The relevance of Piaget's theory to language learning.

E. Empiric Approach in Language Learning
- Psychological Theory of Skinner's and Linguistics Theory of Bloomfield
The most important statements are:
Language as one form of bodily behaviour.
In analyzing languages, Bloomfield distinguish: first stimulus, response "r", an event occurred after a response (r), "R", the sequence of stimulus and response (S ------ r <=> s------R), the emphasizement to mechanistic process and the element of language rather than mentalistic process.
- Language as the form of manner
- Language learning principles in empiric way.

F. Rational Approach in Language Learning
- Rasionalism view about language
- Language is ethic
- Ethic of language is the fact of psychology
- An alive language is a language to think of

G. The Competence and Performance
Competence is a knowledge owned by language speaker about his language and it shows the object of generative grammar; it is intrinsic, implicit, intuitive, and limitted.
Performance of linguistics is concerned with the cognitive process, awareness and understanding process, which are used by individu in the using of linguistics knowledge in actual way.
MY COMMENTS
Psycholinguistics is more than studying language, but a study how humans learn language through language acquisition since they are still young until grow up by psychological activities.
Based on behaviorism theory, it is true that language is not merely sound symbols with meanings, but also a result from what we call as the “S-R Formula”, that language are “practice events” in the form of “response” from a “stimulus”.
That is, in my opinion, psycholinguistics views the definition of language. The definition which is out of that context (which is more systematic) is the definition of language from linguistics’ point of view, rather than the definition of language in common.
In fact, Piaget argued that humans have developed their language cognitive competence since they are about two years old. In this age, children have experienced their language cognitive development. And in their teenage, humans have been able to understand language not only “what” but also “what possibility”.
The rationalists argued that all humans naturally supplied with the ability to speak (or to use language). A child who is born in Indonesia must be able to speak Indonesia, and a child who is born in England must be able to speak English. It shows that basically everyone has ability to speak (to use a language).
Language competence and performance are different, but they depend on each other. Language competence is an ability/knowledge which exists in someone in using their language, semantically and grammatically. Language performance is how someone implement his linguistics ability in producing meaningful sentences.