This textbook offers a cutting edge introduction to psycholinguistics, exploring the cognitive processes underlying language acquisition and use. Provides a step-by-step tour through language acquisition, production, and comprehension, from the word level to sentences and dialogue Incorporates both theory and data, including in-depth descriptions of the experimental evidence behind theories Incorporates a comprehensive review of research in bilingual language processing, sign language, reading, and the neurological basis of language production and comprehension Approaches the subject from a range of perspectives, including psychology, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, neurology, and neurophysiology Includes a full program of resources for instructors and students, including review exercises, a test bank, and lecture slides, available online at www.wiley.com/go/traxler

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations xi Acknowledgments xv Preface xxi 1 An Introduction to Language Science 1 Language Characteristics 2 Grammar, Language Origins, and Non-Human Communication Systems 6 Research on communication abilities in apes 7 “Monkeys don’t talk” 12 Language origins 14 Language and Thought 18 Whorf, linguistic determinism, and linguistic relativity 21 Whorf makes a comeback 23 A Description of the Language-Processing System 27 Summary and Conclusions 28 Test Yourself 29 2 Speech Production and Comprehension 37 Speech Production 38 Speech errors 43 Access interruptus: Tip-of-the-tongue experiences 45 Picture naming and picture–word interference studies 46 The spreading activation model of speech production 48 Potential limitations of lemma theory 50 Self-monitoring and self-repair 51 Articulation 51 Foreign Accent Syndrome Revisited 53 Speech Perception 54 Coarticulation effects on speech perception 56 The motor theory of speech perception 58 The McGurk effect: Visual gestures affect speech perception 61 Mirror neurons: The motor theory enjoys a renaissance 63 The mirror neuron theory of speech perception jumps the shark 65 Other problems for mirror neuron/motor theory 66 The general auditory approach to speech perception 68 Summary and Conclusions 70 Test Yourself 71 3 Word Processing 79 The Anatomy of a Word: How We Mentally Represent Word Form 80 Lexical Semantics 81 Associationist accounts of word meaning: HAL and LSA 87 The symbol grounding problem 89 Embodied semantics 90 Lexical Access 97 First-generation models 99 Second-generation models 105 Third-generation models: Distributed features and distributed cohort 113 Lexical Ambiguity Resolution 116 Does context influence meaning selection for ambiguous words? 117 The Neural Basis of Lexical Representation and Lexical Access 119 How are word meanings represented in the brain? 123 Summary and Conclusions 128 Test Yourself 128 4 Sentence Processing 141 Models of Parsing: Two-Stage Models 147 Models of Parsing: Constraint-Based Models 151 Story context effects 152 Subcategory frequency effects 153 Cross-linguistic frequency data 157 Semantic effects 159 Prosody 161 Visual context effects 164 Interim Summary 166 Argument Structure Hypothesis 166 Limitations, Criticisms, and Some Alternative Parsing Theories 171 Construal 172 Race-based parsing 173 Good-enough parsing 175 Parsing Long-Distance Dependencies 177 Summary and Conclusions 180 Test Yourself 181 5 Discourse Processing 187 Construction–Integration Theory 188 Construction and integration 192 The Structure Building Framework 199 The Event Indexing Model 204 Modeling space, time, protagonists, and motivation 206 Causation, Cohesion, and Coherence in Discourse Encoding and Memory 210 The Role of General World Knowledge in Discourse Processing 214 Building Situation Models 217 Inferencing: Memory-Based Account of Discourse Processing: Minimalist vs. Constructionist Inferencing 220 The Neural Basis of Discourse Comprehension 223 Summary and Conclusions 229 Test Yourself 230 6 Reference 241 Characteristics of Referents That Make Co-Reference Easier 243 Characteristics of Anaphors That Make Co-Reference Easier 249 The Relationship between an Anaphor and Possible Referents Affects Anaphor Resolution 251 Binding Theory 253 Psycholinguistic Theories of Anaphoric Reference 256 The memory focus model 256 Centering theory 256 Informational load hypothesis 258 Summary and Conclusions 260 Test Yourself 260 7 Non-Literal Language Processing 267 Types of Non-Literal Language 268 The Standard Pragmatic View 268 Metaphor 275 Class inclusion and dual reference 279 Conceptual mapping and meaning 281 The structural similarity view 283 The career of metaphor hypothesis 284 Why Metaphor? 285 Metonymy and Underspecification 287 Idioms and Frozen Metaphors 289 Embodiment and the Interpretation of Non-Literal Language 292 The Neural Basis of Non-Literal Language Interpretation 293 Summary and Conclusions 297 Test Yourself 298 8 Dialogue 305 Gricean Maxims 306 Dialogue is Interactive 308 Common Ground 309 Audience Design 312 Egocentric production 315 Effects of Listeners’ Perspective-Taking on Comprehension 317 Summary and Conclusions 320 Test Yourself 321 9 Language Development in Infancy and Early Childhood 325 Prenatal Learning 325 Babies suck 327 Infant Perception and Categorization of Phonemes 329 Solving the Segmentation Problem 333 Infant-directed speech 338 Statistical Learning and Speech Segmentation 339 Interim Summary 343 Learning Word Meanings 344 Syntactic bootstrapping 349 Acquisition of Morphological and Syntactic Knowledge 351 Acquisition of word category knowledge 352 Acquisition of morphological knowledge 354 Acquisition of phrase structure knowledge 356 Summary and Conclusions 358 Test Yourself 360 10 Reading 369 Speed Reading? 369 Eye Movement Control and Reading 370 The perceptual span 372 Oculomotor and Cognitive Control Theories of Reading 376 E-Z reader 378 Parallel attention models and parafoveal-on-foveal effects 381 Cognitive Processing in Reading I 384 Different writing systems and scripts 384 Learning to read 388 Cognitive Processing in Reading II: Visual Word Processing 390 Dual-route and DRC models 391 Single-route models 393 Neighborhood effects 395 Non-word pronunciation 397 Dyslexia: Single-Deficit Models 398 Dyslexia: Dual-Route and Single-Route Explanations 400 Summary and Conclusions 404 Test Yourself 404 11 Bilingual Language Processing 415 Mary Potter and the Secrets of Bilingualism 416 Languages are Simultaneously Active During Comprehension and Production 419 Competition in production 423 Effects of fluency, balance, and language similarity on competition 425 Shared syntactic structure representations 426 Models of Language Control in Bilingual Speakers 429 BIA+ 431 Inhibitory control 431 Context effects and the zooming in hypothesis 432 Bilingualism and Executive Control 434 Teaching Techniques and Individual Differences in Second Language Learning 436 The Neural Bases of Bilingualism 438 Summary and Conclusions 439 Test Yourself 440 12 Sign Language 447 Characteristics of Signed Languages 448 Sign language morphology 453 Lexical Access in Sign Language 455 Sign Language Acquisition and Language Evolution 456 Reading in Deaf Signers 460 The Neural Basis of Sign Language: Left-Hemisphere Contributions to Production and Comprehension 460 Does the Right Hemisphere Play a Special Role in Sign Language? 462 Why is language left lateralized? 464 The Effects of Deafness and Learning Sign Language on Cognitive Processing 466 Perspective taking and sign language 468 Cochlear Implants 469 Outcomes for CI users 470 Summary and Conclusions 472 Test Yourself 473 13 Aphasia 479 Aphasiology: What Happens to Language When the Brain is Damaged? 480 The classic WLG model 482 Problems with the classic WLG model 487 Broca’s Aphasia, Wernicke’s Aphasia, and Syntactic Parsing 492 The trace deletion hypothesis 496 Evidence against the trace deletion hypothesis 499 The mapping hypothesis 501 The resource restriction hypothesis 502 The slowed syntax hypothesis 502 Treatment and Recovery from Aphasia 503 Summary and Conclusions 507 Test Yourself 508 14 Right-Hemisphere Language Function 515 Speech Perception and Production 516 Word Processing 523 The coarse coding hypothesis 526 Right-Hemisphere Contributions to Discourse Comprehension and Production 531 Right-Hemisphere Contributions to Non-Literal Language Understanding 533 What You Can Do with One Hemisphere 534 Why Lateralization? 537 Summary and Conclusions 538 Test Yourself 538 Name Index 547 Subject Index 559