Exploring How We Use Language

 What Happens When We Speak?

Have you ever stopped to think about what actually happens in your mind when you say a simple sentence like “I had coffee this morning”?

The truth is that language is one of the most fascinating and complex things humans do—and we do it fast, accurately, and almost without thinking. In just one minute, we can produce around 150 to 190 words in English—that’s more than 15 sounds (or phonemes) every second (Levelt, 1999). And yet, we hardly ever make mistakes.

So, how do we do it?

The Hidden Steps Behind Speech

When you speak, your brain goes through several steps in just a few milliseconds:

• It understands the situation (Where are you? Who are you talking to?).
• It chooses what you want to say (the idea).
• It finds the words for those ideas (this is called lexical access).
• It organizes those words into a correct sentence (syntax).
• It finds the sounds of those words (phonology).
• Finally, it sends instructions to your mouth to say them out loud (motor execution).

All of this happens in less time than it takes to blink. Amazing, isn’t it?

Why Research Language?

Psycholinguistics is the study of how language works in our brain. It asks questions like:

• How do we understand what others say?
• Why do some sentences feel wrong, even if we understand them?
• What parts of the brain light up when we read or speak?

To answer these questions, scientists use different tools. Let’s take a closer look.

Methods to Study Language

1. Behavioural Experiments

These are simple tests that measure:

• How fast you respond (reaction time).
• How accurate you are (how many right/wrong answers you give).

For example, you might see a picture of an apple and be asked to say the word. Researchers then measure how long it takes you to answer.

2. Brain Activity (ERPs)

Sometimes scientists use special equipment to record brain waves when you hear or read something. This method is called Event-Related Potentials (ERP). Two important signals they look for are:

• N400 – This shows up when something is semantically wrong (meaning-related).
  Example: “He spread the warm bread with socks.” (Kutas & Hillyard, 1980)
• P600 – This appears when a sentence is syntactically strange (grammar-related).
  Example: “Every Monday he wake at 8 a.m.” instead of “he wakes…” (Hagoort et al., 1993)

These brain signals help us understand how people process meaning and grammar.

3. Eye-Tracking

Another tool researchers use is called eye-tracking. This technology follows where your eyes move when you read or look at images. It tells us:

• What words you look at first.
• How long you stay on each word.
• If you go back to reread (which may mean confusion).

For example, when you hear “The boy will eat the cake,” most people quickly look at the picture of the cake (Altmann & Kamide, 1999). That’s because your brain is predicting the most likely word or action.

All These Processes at Once

Let’s take a simple story:

“Last week, I was on holiday in Paris, the capital of France. Every morning, I bought a croissant and had it with coffee. I had a great time and felt very happy.”

While reading or listening to this, your brain is:

• Accessing word meanings (semantic processing).
• Using long-term memory to understand “Paris,” “croissant,” etc.
• Guessing the next part of the story (predictive processing).
• Understanding emotions (emotion and prosody).
• Connecting ideas (pragmatic and contextual knowledge).

And yes—this all happens at once.

Key Concepts in Language

Here are some important terms you’ll often hear in psycholinguistics:

Term	What It Means	Example
Lexicon	The set of words you know.	English: table, Spanish: mesa
Semantics	The meaning of those words and ideas.	A table = a flat surface with legs
Syntax	How words go together grammatically.	The white table vs. Table white the
Phonology	How the sounds of a language work.	table = /ˈteɪbəl/
Prosody	The rhythm, tone, and melody of speech.	“Nice table!” (happy or sarcastic?)
Pragmatics	How we use language in context.	“I bought a table” (for dinner or ping-pong?)

Why Does This Matter?

By learning how language works in the brain, we can:

• Improve second language learning.
• Help people with language disorders.
• Create better tools for translation and communication.
• Design smarter technologies (like phones or assistants).

Most importantly, it helps us understand what it means to be human, because language is one of the most human things we do.

Final Thoughts

Learning a language is not just about grammar or vocabulary—it’s about becoming more aware of your mind and how you communicate. Whether you're naming a picture, reading a sentence, or telling a story, your brain is doing incredible things behind the scenes.

And that’s what makes psycholinguistics such a powerful field.

References

Altmann, G. T. M., & Kamide, Y. (1999). Incremental interpretation at verbs: Restricting the domain of subsequent reference. Cognition, 73(3), 247–264.

Hagoort, P., Brown, C. M., & Groothusen, J. (1993). The syntactic positive shift (SPS) as an ERP measure of syntactic processing. Language and Cognitive Processes, 8(4), 439–483.

Kutas, M., & Hillyard, S. A. (1980). Reading senseless sentences: Brain potentials reflect semantic incongruity. Science, 207(4427), 203–205.

Rayner, K. (1998). Eye movements in reading and information processing: 20 years of research. Psychological Bulletin, 124(3), 372–422.