The Psychology of Language

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. The publisher makes no representation, express or implied, with regard to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and cannot accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions that may be made. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Harley, Trevor A. The psychology of language : from data to theory / Trevor Harley.—3rd ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and indexes. Contents Preface xi How to use this book xv SECTION A: INTRODUCTION 1 1. The study of language 3 Introduction 3 What is language? 5 The history and methods of psycholinguistics 9 Language and the brain 14 Themes and controversies in modern psycholinguistics 19 Summary 24 Some questions to think about 25 Further reading 25 2. Describing language 27 Introduction 27 How to describe speech sounds 27 Linguistic approaches to syntax 34 Summary 45 Some questions to think about 46 Further reading 46 SECTION B: THE BIOLOGICAL AND DEVELOPMENTAL BASES OF LANGUAGE 49 3. The foundations of language 51 Introduction 51 Where did language come from? 51 Do animals have language? 54 The biological basis of language 67 The cognitive basis of language: The cognition hypothesis 79 The social basis of language 82 The language development of visually and hearing-impaired children 84 What is the relation between language and thought? 87 Summary 99 Some questions to think about 100 Further reading 100 4. Language development 103 Introduction 103 The driving forces of language development 105 Do children learn any language in the womb? 119 Phonological development 120 Lexical and semantic development 125 Early syntactic development 136 Summary 150 Some questions to think about 151 Further reading 151 5. Bilingualism and second language acquisition 153 Introduction 153 Bilingualism 153 vii 9781841693828_1_pre.PM5 Second language acquisition 158 Summary 162 Some questions to think about 162 Further reading 163 SECTION C: WORD RECOGNITION 165 6. Recognizing visual words 167 Introduction 167 Basic methods and basic findings 168 Meaning-based facilitation of visual word recognition 185 Morphology: Processing complex words 191 Models of …