Customer Reviews

The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics

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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.

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.

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.