CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

A. Theoretical Background

1. Psycholinguistics

There are many definitions of psycholinguistics. Scovel (1998: 4) defines

psycholinguistics as the use of language and speech as a window to the nature and structure
of the human mind.

Talking about language and human mind will not be separated from the study of
psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and
understand language. Aitchison (2011: 15) adds that this subject links psychology and
linguistics which enables learners find out structures and processes which underlie a
human’s ability to speak and understand language. In other words, learning this study will
help learners to understand the psychology of how humans learn and understand language
whether it is first or second language. Moreover, learning this subject enables learners to
know the nature and structure of mind which is related to language and speech.

Psycholinguistics also explores the relationship between human mind and language
or thought and language (Field, 2003: 2). Unlike sociolinguistics which treats language
users as representative of society, psycholinguistics treats language users as individuals
whose linguistic performance is determined by the strength and limitation of the mental
organ like the brain. The study of psycholinguistics is also about language behavior which
explains how in reality people learn and use language. Moreover, this study offers
explanation of how psychological factors on the development, use, and interpretation of
language influence humans‟ language.

2. Language Acquisition

The process when the child begins to recognize verbal communication with its
environment is called language acquisition of children. The term used for the acquisition of
British counterpart of the term acquisition, namely the process of language acquisition by
children naturally when he learns his native language (Dardjowidjojo, 2008:225).

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Child language acquisition occurs when a child who from the beginning without the
language has acquired language. During the language acquisition of children, more children
leads to the communication function rather than form of the language. Child language
acquisition can be said to have the characteristics of continuity, have a continuum, moving
from simple one-word utterance into a more complicated combination of words. Language
acquisition is closely related to cognitive development, namely, first, if the child is able to
produce utterances which, based on the grammar which are neat, does not automatically
imply that the child has mastered the relevant languages well. Second, the speaker must
obtain the cognitive categories that underlie the various meanings expressive natural
languages.

During the first language acquisition, Chomsky mentions that there are two
processes which occur when a child acquire his first language. The process is a process of
competence and performance process. Both processes are two different processes.
Competence is the process of mastery of grammar (phonology, morphology, syntax, and
semantics) unconsciously. Competence is taken by every child from birth. Although innate,
competence development requires that children have performances in the language.
Performance is the ability of children to use language to communicate. The performance
consists of two processes, namely the process of understanding and the process of issuance
of the sentences.

The process of understanding involves the ability to observe or perceive sentences

heard, while the publishing process involves the ability to produce their own sentences
(Chaer 2003:167). Furthermore, Chomsky also assumes that language users understand the
structure of language that makes him able created new sentences countless and make him
understand the sentences. Thus, competence is the intuitive knowledge that an individual
possesses about his mother language (native Languange). This linguistic intuition does not
just exist, but was developed in line with growth in children, while the performance is
something that is produced by the competency.

3. Stages and Development of language acquisition

When human are born, he does not have suddenly the grammatical of his first language
in his brain and completely with its rules. The native language is acquired through some
stages, and every stage is passed near to adult‟s language. There are stages in children‟s
first language acquisition, namely:
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a. Pralinguistik Phase :

1.) Pre-talking stage / Cooing (0-6 months)

According to Bolinger (2002:283) pre-talking stage or cooing is the vowel-like sound

responding to human sounds more definitely, turns head, eyes seem to search for speaker
occasionally some chuckling sounds. For example, Miles (at the age of 4 months)
demonstrating the cooing stage of language acquisition. He is producing vowel-like sounds
(especially, the back vowels [u] and [o])in the sounds of “oh”, “uh”, and “ah”, typical of
"cooing".He still finds difficulties in producing the vowel sound [i] except when he is
screaming in “hiii”. Moreover in producing the consonant sounds like [b], [p], or [m], she is
not able to produce them yet.

2.) Babbling stage (6-8 months)

Babbling is the sounds which infants produce as consonant-vowel combinations, Steinberg

(2003:147). The sounds which are produced by infants but not all the speech sounds are
same in language of the world such as [ma-ma-ma] or [da-da-da] and [ba-ba-ba] or [na-na-
na].

b. Linguistics Phase.

1.) .Holophrastic Stage (first linguistic stage).

a.) Vocalizations Sound.

At the age of about six weeks, the baby started to give out the sounds in the form of
screaming, whining, snoring. Sound emitted by the infant is similar to the sound of
consonants or vowels. After the vocalization stage, babies begin to babble (babling).
Dardjowidjojo (2005: 244) mentions that babbling stage occurs around the age of six
months, there are also some experts say that chatter occurs at the age of eight to 10 months.
Basically, the ability of children chattering depends on the development of a child
neurology. At this stage, they began to mix with a vocal consonant. Babbling begins with a
consonant and followed by a vowel. The first exit is consonant consonant bilabial nasal
bilabial and inhibition. Vowel is / a /.

V1 K1 K1 K1 V1 V1 ... papapa mamama bababa ...

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Once the child through this period of babbling, they started learning how to say the
sequence of segments, namely silabe-silabe and words. In the early stages of language
acquisition, children usually produces words of adults who simplified as follows:

1) eliminate the final consonant : blumen bu boot bu

2) reduce consonant groups into a single segment: batre bate bring bin

3) omit syllables that are not given key pressure : kunci ti semut emut

4) simple syllable reduplication : pergi gigi nakal kakal

In this stage children begin to imitate the intonation patterns of sentences spoken by adults.

b.) One-word or Holofrastis Stage

Fromkin (1983:328) defined holophrastic from holo “complete” or “undivided” plus

phrase “phrase” or “sentence”. So holophrastic is the children‟s first single word which
represent to a sentence. Children using one word to express particular emotional state. For
example, Debby‟s mother recorded the words she had pronounced during the 8 months
after the appearance of her first word at 9 months (this was [adi], used both for her "daddy"
During the two weeks from 17 months - 17 months and a half, she more than doubled her
vocabulary.

c.) Two Words, One Phrase Phase.

Two-word stage is the mini sentences with simple semantic relations. As Fromkin
(1983:329) states that children begin to form actual two-word sentences, with the relations
between the two words showing definite syntactic and semantic relations and the intonation
contour of the two words extending over the whole utterance rather than being separated by
a pause between the two words. The following ¡°dialogue¡± illustrates the kinds of patterns
that are found in the children.s utterances at this stage. Basically, a child at this age is
already able to produce the consonant sounds like [j], [p], [b], [d], [t], [m], and [n].

d.) Telegraphic stage.

Telegraphic is merely a descriptive term because the child does not deliberately
leave out the non-content words, as does an adult sending a telegram, Fromkin (1983:330).
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When the child begins to produce utterances that ere longer than two words, these
utterances appear to be “sentence-like”; they have hierarchical, constituent structures
similar to the syntactic structures found in the sentences produced by adult grammar.

e.) Later multiword stage.

According to Bolinger (2002:283) at this stage is fastest increase in vocabulary with

many new additions everyday; no babbling at all; utterances have communicative intent.
There is a great variation among children, seems to understand everything said within
hearing and directed to them.

4. Children Language Development

Semantic is the study of the linguistic meaning of words, phrases, and sentences
(Fromkin, 1983:164). Children.s early utterances, consisting primarily of single words,
were once considered to carry the meaning of whole sentences; they were labeled
holophrastic. It was though that children intended the more elaborate meanings of older
individuals but non-semantic factors, such us their insufficient memory spans Gleasonfield
and Smith, in Gleason, (1985:152) states that this position was difficult to support because
it required attributing intention and semantic knowledge to young children on the basis a
little evidence. It is now believed that young children come only gradually to understand
and subsequently encode in their words of adult meanings.

Gleason (1985:90) states that the processes of concepts learning and lexicalization,
or attachment of words and meaning, may occur at varying rates and overlapping in time.
At times children.s concepts right match those of adult, but the children might use
imperfect and only partially appropriate words because they lack better words to express
themselves. To serve their communication desires, children may make a choice to use
words in an analogous fashion or as semantic standing for the words they do not know. And
then, Nelson at all in Gleason (1985:90) have suggested that young children are actively
engaged in the classification and of features of objects and events, and use their single
words analogically to comment upon similarities they have noticed additional evidence that
children are using analogy comes from the fact that they are seldom observed to use words
in this fashion often they acquire syntax and can explain what they mean. As Jakobson in
Fromkin (1983:163) said that language without meaning is meaningless.

a. Acquisition of Syntax

Syntax is the number of rules required for the morpheme (Gleason, 1985:152). The
remarkable features about development syntactic rules in that seems to take place almost
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unnoticed, with no explicit instruction. Parents who quite consciously and conscientiously
teach their children concept and words never presume to teach syntax. They focus on what
the child is saying rather than how the child says it, (Gleason, 1987:139-140).

Much of what we know about the development of syntax comes, of course, from
studying what children actually say. Virtually ever utterance grammatical sentence is for
speaker and hearer, a novel one, but it falls within the set of organizational principles for
that language. So, virtually every conversation is altogether for the participants, yet it falls
within the set of principles for appropriate and socially interpretable communication. Every
conversation is altogether new fort he participant, yet it falls within the set of organization
and sequential order known to the participants (Linfords, 1980: 276).

b. Pragmatic Acquisition

Language is often uses us as a social tool. With it we convey, information about the
content. According Austin in Gleason (1998:27) we use language to inform, to promise, to
request, to query; how language is used to accomplish various ends in the world is the
domain of pragmatics. Pragmatics determines our choice of wording and our interpretation
of language in different situations.

c. Phonological Acquisition

Phonological aspect is discussed under phonology field which is the study of phonemes
and their distribution in a language. Haryono (2007: 2) defines phonemes as the smallest
distinctive or significant sounds. Yule in Haryono (2007: 2) also gives his definition of
phonemes which refer to each one of these meaning-distinguishing sounds in a language.
The significant sounds can be seen from vowels, consonants, and diphthongs.

d. Morphological Aspect

Morphological aspect is discussed under morphology which is a field of linguistics

studying about morphemes and their combination in words. Morphology concerns with the
forms of words, how words are constructed, and the smallest meaningful sound unit:
morpheme.

Gleason (1961: 52-53) states that the morpheme is the smallest unit which is
grammatically pertinent. But it would then be necessary to define grammar as the study of
morphemes and their combinations. This is obviously circular and hence is no definition.
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Nevertheless, it does serves to point out something significant. As a basic concept, a

morpheme cannot be defined beyond some such circular statement. Some morphemes can
be usefully described as the smallest meaningful units in the structure of the language.
Meanwhile O‟Grady and Guzman (1996, p.133) stated that a morpheme is the essential
unit in word construction, the smallest meaningful component of language which conveys
message containing meaning or function.

There are two kinds of morphemes: free and bound morphemes. Free morphemes are those
which can stand by themselves, independent. They consist of verbal and nominal ones.
Bound morphemes are those which cannot stand by themselves, dependent on the free
morphemes.

Example:

The example above consists of one free morpheme (continent) and two bound morphemes
(al, inter). The free morpheme belongs to nominal one since continent is a noun.