Words in the Mind
An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon
3rd Edition
Published on 6. December 2002
Book
Hardback
328 pages
978-0-631-23243-8 (ISBN)
Description
This book deals with words, and how humans learn them, remember them, understand them, and find the ones they want. In brief, it discusses the structure and content of the human word-store or 'mental lexicon', with particular reference to the spoken language of native English speakers. Since the first two editions of "Words in the Mind" were published, work on the lexicon has exploded. This is reflected in this new edition, which contains substantial additions. One new chapter has been added on layering and meaning change, and several others have been considerably expanded. The notes and suggestions for further reading have been updated, and numerous new references have been included. The book remains accessible in style and easy to read for both undergraduates and non-specialists.
More details
Edition
3rd Revised edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Oxford
United Kingdom
Publishing group
John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Target group
College/higher education
Professional and scholarly
Edition type
Revised edition
Illustrations
53
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Weight
610 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-631-23243-8 (9780631232438)
Copyright in bibliographic data is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or its licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Previous edition
Book
07/1994
2nd Edition
Blackwell Publishers
€41.07
Article exhausted; check for reprint
Person
Jean Aitchison is the Rupert Murdoch Professor of Language and Communication at the University of Oxford, and a Professional Fellow at Worcester College. In her research she is concerned with the mental lexicon, language change, and the language of the media. She has lectured in various parts of the world, including the USA, Europe, and India, and is the author of The Articulate Mammal (Fourth Edition, 1998), Language Change (Third Edition, 2001), Linguistics (Fifth Edition, 1999), The Seeds of Speech (1996), and The Language Web (1997).
Content
Preface. Acknowledgements. Abbreviations and Symbols. Part I: Aims and Evidence: 1. Welcome to Dictionopolis+ACE-The human word-store. 2. Links in the Chain. Assessing the evidence. 3. Programming Dumbella. Modelling the mental lexicon. Part II: Basic Ingredients: 4. Slippery Customers. Attempts to pin down the meaning of words. 5. Bad Birds and Better Birds. Prototype theories. 6. Whispering Chambers of the Imagination. Mental models. 7. The Primordial Atomic Globule Hunt. The search for semantic primitives. 8. Word-webs. Semantic networks. 9. Lexical All-sorts. Parts of speech. 10. Verb Power. The role of verbs. 11. Bits of Words. The internal architecture of words. 12. Taking Care of the Sounds. Dealing with the sound patterns. Part III: Newcomers: 13. Drifting Words. Layering and meaning change. 14. Interpreting Ice-cream Cones. Extending old words. 15. Globbering Mattresses. Creating new words. 16. What is a Bongaloo, Daddy? How children learn the meaning of words. 17. Aggergog Miggers, Wips and Gucks. How children cope with the sound structure of words. Part IV: The Overall Picture: 18. Seeking and Finding. Selecting words. 19. Organized Guesswork. Recognizing words. 20. Odd Arrangements and Funny Solutions. The organization of the mental lexicon. 21. Last Word. Final comments and future questions. Notes. References. Index.