This books explores why it is we believe what we believe about language, and why we persist in handing down from generation to generation a rag bag collection of fact and fantasy about language.

This extremely up to date book, Speech Production and Second Language Acquisition, is the first volume in the exciting new series, “Cognitive Science and Second Language Acquisition.

This book aims to contribute to a growing interest amongst psycholinguists and morphologists in the mechanisms of meaning predictability. It presents a brand-new model of the meaning-prediction of novel, context-free naming units, relating the wordformation and wordinterpretation processes. Unlike previous studies, mostly focussed on N+N compounds, the scope of this book is much wider. It not only covers all types of complex words, but also discusses a whole range of predictability-boosting and -reducing conditions. Two measures are introduced, the Predictability Rate and the Objectified Predictability Rate, in order to compare the strength of predictable readings both within a word and relative to the most predictable readings of other coinages. Four extensive experiments indicate inter alia the equal predicting capacity of native and non-native speakers, the close interconnection between linguistic and extra-linguistic factors, the important role of prototypical semes, and the usual dominance of a single central reading.

Comprises papers at the Child Language Seminar held at the University of Durham in March 1996. The seminar focused on social dimension of children's developing language and was attended by delegates from a variety of backgrounds and interests, including teachers, linguists, psychologists, speech therapists and a number of postgraduates. All of the papers are based on empirical research. Each focuses on a particular aspect of the children's developing sociolinguistic strategies and pragmatic competence. The book should be of interest to those interested in children and their language development.

Presents background to the descriptions and discussions of child language that are presented in this issue of the journal on the theme of developing pragmatic competence. This background information, referred to as "intuitive knowledge," serves as a framework for understanding children's development of pragmatic linguistic competence and accompanying sociolinguistic strategies.

 

Local Literacies is a unique study of everyday reading and writing. By concentrating on a selection of people in a particular community in Britain, the authors analyze how they use literacy in their day to day lives. This exploration provides a description of literacy at one point in time, and also reveals the nature and significance of communication to people, households and communities.