Introducing the fundamental issues in psycholinguistics, this book explores the amazing story of the unconscious processes that take place when humans use language. Spanning key topics including the biological foundations of language; acquisition of first and second languages in children and adults; the mental lexicon; and speech production, perception, and processing, it is a very welcome addition for those seeking a linguistically-oriented yet balanced textbook.

Reflecting the experience and knowledge gained by the authors in their combined forty years of teaching psycholinguistics, the book is structured as an engaging narrative; from an idea in the mind of a speaker, to its comprehension in the mind of the hearer. It includes the very latest empirical developments in psycholinguistics, and is illustrated throughout with examples from bilingual as well as monolingual language processing, second language acquisition, and sign languages. Each chapter concludes with study questions, a review of the key concepts discussed, and further readings where appropriate. An appendix discussing experimental designs in psycholinguistics offers an excellent overview of work being done in the field, and prepares students for their own research.

Table of Contents

List of Tables.

Prologue.

1. Beginning Concepts.

2. The Nature of Linguistic Competence.

3. The Biological Basis of Language.

4. The Acquisition of Language.

5. The Speaker: Producing Speech.

6. The Hearer: Speech Perception and Lexical Access.

7. The Hearer: Structural Processing.

8. Remembering Sentences, Processing Discourse, and Having Conversations.

Epilogue. Appendix: Experimental Designs in Psycholinguistics.

References. Name Index. Subject Index.