Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics

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Psychological Reality of Linguistic Structure
(2,776 words)

This lemma reviews the notion of psychological reality and its application to Chinese linguistic structures. Linguistic structures claimed to be psychologically real are claimed to be psychologically active, not merely descriptively convenient, even if there is no direct physical evidence for them.

In an early study on psychological reality, Sapir (1949) argued that phonemes are not merely notational tools for grouping physical sounds, but mental e…

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James MYERS, “Psychological Reality of Linguistic Structure”, in: Encyclopedia of Chinese Language and Linguistics, General Editor Rint Sybesma. Consulted online on 19 March 2024 <http://dx.doi.org/10.1163/2210-7363_ecll_COM_000091>
First published online: 2015



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