The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics [Paperback]

Jean Aitchison (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415167914 | ISBN-13: 978-0415167918 | Publication Date: June 28, 1998 | Edition: 4

Requiring no prior knowledge of the subject, this text tackles basic questions central to the study of psycholinguistics, such as whether language is restricted to humans, whether there is biological evidence for innate language activity, how children learn language, and how we understand, plan and produce language. The author investigates these issues with regard to animal communication, child language and the language of adults, and provides references and suggestions for further reading.;The book has been substantially revised, in particular taking account of the considerable changes in Chomsky's recent ideas. As a result, the chapters on grammatical innateness, child language acquisition and speech comprehension have been largely rewritten.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Praise for the first edition:

'An excellent and very welcome guide to psycholinguistics ... Highly recommended.' – The Washington Post

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

About the Author

Jean Aitchison was Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford from 1993 to 2003, and is now an Emeritus Professorial Fellow at Worcester College, Oxford. She is the author of numerous books on language and gave the 1996 BBC Reith lectures on the topic of ‘The Language Web’.

--This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 4 edition (June 28, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415167914
• ISBN-13: 978-0415167918
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,277,608 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Accessible and delightful introduction to psycholinguistics, June 4, 2001

By 

Kevin B. Cohen (Denver, CO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics (Paperback)

This book is an accessible and delightful introduction to the field of linguistics. Some of its strong points:

* Good coverage both of the arguments for standard Chomskyan theory, and the experimental evidence that fails to support it * Excellent coverage of child language acquisition * Explanations of important experiments--how they worked, what they showed, and why they mean what they mean

I've used this book successfully in 3 introductory psycholinguistics courses, and have sent a chapter from it to my grandmother to explain what linguistics is. Can't get more accessible than that! At the same time, though, it's useful for anyone who wants to get a handle on the field; it's where I go when I want a refresher.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A good book if I can say so, October 10, 2005

By 

Tom Reynolds (Wuhan, China) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics (Paperback)

Aitchison does a fine job of surveying the field of psycholinguistics and providing an introduction to the field. As always, she is concise, witty, and apropos. The strength of this book lies in the author's ability to summarise the various theories and evaluate them. I particularly enjoyed her evaluation of Chomsky through the introduction of his grammar to "Jupiter's stick insects."

Jean Aitchison is quickly becoming my favourite linguistics writer for her ability to explain complex linguistics points with ease. Some mammals tend to be more articulate than others; indeed some tend to obfuscate rather than articulate. Aitchison is clearly more articulate than most.

4.0 out of 5 stars A linguists book: A book on language, November 15, 2010

By 

Stephen Pellerine (In a bookshelf somewhere) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics (Hardcover)

A linguists book: A book on language

I like this book a lot starting from its introduction. It really addresses the acquisition of language from both cognitive and philosophical perspectives. There are lots of antidotes to think about regarding the question of acquisition of language and other natural phenomena - acts carries out by other animal, but the focus is the development of human language.

As someone in linguistics/TESOL the following idea from Aitchison may be relevant: "Biologically programmed behavior does not develop properly in impoverished or unnatural surroundings" (p. 68). Now think of TESOL settings and the unnatural breakdown of language in English Language classrooms for second language learners. Is it necessary, and/or natural for these learners to be exposed to more grammar than any native speaking individual?

Great book - and a lot more in store for you.