psycholinguistics

n. Psycholinguistics is the psychological study of language. Although there are roots in psychological and linguistic studies in the late 1800s, the field as it is understood today emerged in the 1950s. Contemporary psycholinguistics is a merging of a number of scientific fields, including neuroscience, computer science, philosophy, sociology, and anthropology, in addition to psychology and linguistics. Psycholinguists study language skills in children and in adults, in both oral and written language, and in monolinguals and multilinguals.

One theme of psycholinguistics is the relationship between biology and language behavior. Early work correlated naturally occurring brain injuries due to strokes or accidents with resulting language impairments. In recent decades, brain-imaging techniques have sharpened our understanding of the brain regions associated with language.

A second theme is the relationship between language and thought. For example, languages use different methods of describing spatial arrays, and these differences influence the spatial behavior of language users. Although languages do not create or prevent thinking patterns, one's language experience may make it relatively easier or more difficult to think in certain ways. – DWC