Talking the Talk: Language, Psychology and Science

Language makes us human, but how do we learn and use it? This book is an introduction to the psychology of language. Written for the reader with no background in the area or knowledge of psychology, it explains how we actually "do" language: how we speak, listen, and read.Talking the Talk provides an accessible and comprehensive introduction to psycholinguistics, the study of the psychological processes involved in language. It shows how it's possible to study language experimentally, and how psychologists use these studies to build models of language processing. The book covers the major current controversies in the area as well as all the main topics, including how children acquire language, how language is related to the brain, and what can go wrong ' and what can be done when something does go wrong.Structured around questions that people often ask about language, the emphasis of this book is how scientific knowledge can be applied to practical problems. It also stresses how language is related to other aspects of psychology, particularly in whether animals can learn language, and the relation between language and thought.Lively and amusing, Talking the Talk will be essential reading for undergraduate students and those new to the topic, as well as the interested lay reader.Harley is the author of 'Talking the Talk: Language, Psychology and Science', published 2010 under ISBN 9781841693408 and ISBN 1841693405.