psycholinguistics

American  

[sahy-koh-ling-gwis-tiks] / ˌsaɪ koʊ lɪŋˈgwɪs tɪks /

noun

(used with a singular verb)

1. the study of the relationship between language and the cognitive or behavioral characteristics of those who use it.

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psycholinguistics British  

/ ˌsaɪkəʊlɪŋˈɡwɪstɪks /

noun

1. (functioning as singular) the psychology of language, including language acquisition by children, the mental processes underlying adult comprehension and production of speech, language disorders, etc

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Other Word Forms

• psycholinguist noun
• psycholinguistic adjective

Etymology

Origin of psycholinguistics

First recorded in 1935–40; psycho- + linguistics

Example Sentences

They have been together for nearly two years, but Ms. Tenenbaum, who studies psycholinguistics at Northeastern University, felt that her boyfriend wasn’t as affectionate as he might be.

From New York Times • Mar. 10, 2014

Pinker might well have made the chart anyway, but probably owes his high position to his switch from his specialist field of psycholinguistics to history in The Better Angels of Our Nature.

From The Guardian • Apr. 25, 2013

As it develops, the discipline has spawned such hybrids or specialties as computational linguistics, sociolinguistics, psycholinguistics, even biological linguistics.

From Time Magazine Archive

Fortunately, garden- pathing is a major research topic in psycholinguistics, so we know what to look for.

From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker