Reflections on Psycholinguistic Theories: Raiding the Inarticulate
Cambridge University Press, 1/31/2018
EAN 9781108404648, ISBN10: 1108404642
Paperback, 414 pages, 22.9 x 15.2 x 2.4 cm
Language: English
In a work that is part memoir, part monograph, Nigel Duffield offers a set of lyrical reflections on theories of Psycholinguistics, which is concerned with how speakers use the languages they control, as well as with how such control is acquired in the first place. Written for professionals and enthusiastic amateurs alike, this book offers a 'well-tempered' examination of the conceptual and empirical foundations of the field. In developing his ideas, the author draws on thirty years of direct professional experience of psycholinguistic theory and practice, across various sub-disciplines, including theoretical linguistics, cognitive psychology, philosophy, and philology. The author's personal experience as a language learner - more importantly, as the father of three bilingual children - also plays a crucial role in shaping the discussion. Using examples from popular literature, song, poetry, and comedy, the work examines many of the foundational questions that divide researchers from different intellectual traditions: these include the nature of 'linguistic competence', the arbitrariness of language, and the theoretical implications of variation between speakers and across languages.
Introduction
Part I. Both Sides, Now
1. Breaking us in two
2. Marr's Vision I
3
Marr's Vision II
Part II
Six Different Ways
4. (Case #1)
'Starry, starry night'
5. (Case # 2)
'There's a word for it'
6. (Case # 3)
'Running up that hill'
7. (Case # 4)
'Me, myself, I'
8. (Case # 5)
'Be my number two'…won't you?
9. (Case # 6)
'Cwucial questions'
Part III. Say it ain't so, Joe
10. A is for Abstraction (and Ambiguity)
11. B is for Arbitrariness
12. C is for Competence~Performance, and Proficiency
13. F is for Functions of Language
14. G is for Grammar
15. H is for Homogeneity
16. I is for Internalism (I-language)
17. J is for Judgment
18. N is for (Chomskyan) Nativism
19. O is for Object of Study
20. P is for Poverty of the Stimulus (Good Arguments)
21. R is for (Exophoric) Reference
22. T is for Sentence
23. V is for von Humboldt (Discrete Infinity)
24. Ω is for Love
Part IV. A Tale of Two Cities
25. 'I ain't bovvered'
26. 'Who did say that?'