Psycholinguistics: a survey of theory and research problems.

Abstract

PROBLEMSphers and others who had always exhibited some interest in language developed a renewed concern for the field.But their various lines of approach to the problem of language were in some respects remarkably disparate.The descriptive linguists discussing phonemes, the communications engineers discussing binary digits, and the psychologist discussing linguistic responses seemed most of the time to be engaged in wholly separate conversations.Here and there one could find individuals whose training was sufficiently broad to participate in all three conversations, but the overlap was tenuous.It was in this context that the Social Science Research Council set up a Committee on Linguistics and Psychology in October, 1952.The purpose of the Committee was to bring together men trained in the various fields relating to the study of language with a view to planning and developing research on language behavior.