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Psychology of Language

Course leader: Linda Luckhurst
linda.luckhurst@buckingham.ac.uk
One term (15 units)

This course is taken in the final sixth months of a student's degree.

It introduces students to key approaches and issues in the psychology of language.

Its aims are to provide students with an understanding of areas such as how language is organised and structured, the relationship between thought and language, semiotics and semantics, and conversation and reading.

On completion of the course students should have acquired a sound understanding of the psychology of language, from a diversity of approaches ranging from the biological to the social.

It contains the following topic areas:

• Language organisation and structure
• Semantics and semiotics
• Deixis: language and social interaction
• Speech and word recognition
• Conversational analysis and interaction
• Power relations in language
• Role of the reader
• Writing, narrative and narratology

The course is assessed by both course work (40%) and written examination (60%)

Main texts :

• Forrester, M.A. Psychology of language. A critical introduction (London: Sage, 1996). ISBN: 978-0-8039-7991-6.
• Greene, J. & M. Coulson. Language understanding: current issues (2nd ed., Buckingham: Open University Press, 1995). ISBN: 978-0-335-19437-0.
• Harley, T.A. The psychology of language. From data to theory (Hove: Erlbaum, 1995). ISBN: 978-0-86377-382-6.