CJJ63 Psycholinguistics

Faculty of Arts
Spring 2025
Extent and Intensity
0/2. 5 credit(s). Type of Completion: k (colloquium).
In-person direct teaching
Teacher(s)
prof. Mgr. Pavel Kosek, Ph.D. (lecturer)
Radim Lacina, M.Sc. (lecturer)
Guaranteed by
prof. Mgr. Pavel Kosek, Ph.D.
Department of Czech Language – Faculty of Arts
Contact Person: Bc. Silvie Hulewicz, DiS.
Supplier department: Department of Czech Language – Faculty of Arts
Timetable
Mon 10:00–11:40 B2.43, except Mon 21. 4. to Sun 27. 4.
Prerequisites
! CJJ62 Psycholinguistics and experimental language research
Sufficient ability in academic English
Course Enrolment Limitations
The course is also offered to the students of the fields other than those the course is directly associated with.
The capacity limit for the course is 20 student(s).
Current registration and enrolment status: enrolled: 9/20, only registered: 0/20, only registered with preference (fields directly associated with the programme): 0/20
fields of study / plans the course is directly associated with
Course objectives
This course introduces the field of psycholinguistics with a focus on including up-to-date research. Psycholinguistics is an interdisciplinary field aiming to discover how language is processed in real time and how it is acquired. We will explore language as it is acquired in childhood and as it is produced and comprehended in adulthood. We will do so by examining a series of concrete questions in the field with the broader implications for linguistic theory and cognitive science in mind.
Learning outcomes
Having successfully completed the course, the student will be able to:
- exhibit knowledge in selected areas of the acquisition, production, and comprehension of language;
- understand how the research questions of psycholinguistics fit within linguistics and cognitive science;
- debate the scientific merit of positions taken with regards to major controversies within psycholinguistics;
- understand the most commonly used methods in psycholinguistic research
- write an original piece of work reviewing primary research in the field
Syllabus
  • 1. Where does psycholinguistics fit in? An introduction
  • 2. Are we born with language? The “Poverty of the Stimulus” argument
  • 3. Word learning: How do children figure out what they mean?
  • 4. From thinking to speaking: Producing language step by step
  • 5. How do we pick what to say? Syntactic choice
  • 6. How far ahead do we plan when we speak? Incremental production
  • 7. Parsing and modularity: Comprehending sentences in real time
  • 8. Dependency completion: Memory in comprehension
  • 9. Prediction in comprehension: Looking ahead
  • 10. Sentences in context: What does focus do?
  • 11. Going beyond what is said: Pragmatics
  • 12. Does knowing more than one language make you smarter? The bilingual advantage
  • 13. Essay discussions
Teaching methods
lectures, class discussion, reading
Assessment methods
This course will be assessed by a colloquium. The assessment will consist in a 2000-word essay answering a question from an assigned list. These essays will then be discussed together in the last session of the semester. The essay and the discussion together will then serve as the basis of the student’s passing or failing the course.
Language of instruction
English
Further Comments
Study Materials
The course is taught annually.
Listed among pre-requisites of other courses
The course is also listed under the following terms Spring 2026.
  • Enrolment Statistics (recent)
  • Permalink: https://is.muni.cz/course/phil/spring2025/CJJ63