The Psychology of Language: From Data to Theory

by Trevor A. Harley

The Psychology of Language is a thorough revision and update of the popular second edition. It contains everything the student needs to know about the psychology of language, including how we acquire, understand, produce, and store language. The third edition contains new chapters on how children learn to read, and how language is used in everyday settings. It also describes recent research on the impact of new techniques of brain imaging.

The text is comprehensive and written in a lively and accessible style. It covers all the main topics in this complex field, focusing on reading, writing, speaking, and listening in both adult and child language. There is an emphasis on language processing as well as language production and coverage of the social basis of language. The text covers recent connectionist models of language, describing complex ideas in a clear and approachable manner. Following a strong developmental theme, the text describes how children acquire language (sometimes more than one), and also how they learn to read. The Psychology of Language also demonstrates how language is related to the brain and to other aspects of cognition.

The Psychology of Language assumes no prior knowledge other than a grounding in the basic concepts of cognitive psychology. This third edition of this bestselling textbook will be essential reading for any student of cognition, psycholinguistics or the psychology of language. It will also be useful for those on speech and language therapy courses.

Genres: Linguistics, Psychology, Nonfiction, Science, Language, Textbooks, Education

624 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 1995

Reviews

[Samir Rawas Sarayji · Rating 3 out of 5]

An all-encompassing introduction to the study of the psychology of language. The book suffers by adopting traditional textbook format and structure—very textual, overstuffed with information, and dry.

Pros:
1. Covers a very wide range of topics in the field.
2. Is up-to-date with the latest research and references.
3. Will guide students to any part of a field they are interested in by covering the basics and pointing to further reading.
4. Is self-aware to distinguish between the psychology of language and related fields like linguistics.
5. Useful bibliography.

Cons:
1. Exceptionally wordy and lacks infographics and diagrams that facilitate learning the basic material.
2. Some redundant diagrams and pictures—space could have been used for infographics.
3. Overly focused on mentioning research and references, resulting in the interesting threads of thought being quickly lost.
4. Completely objective author—noting but facts. No ideas, no input, no interpretations.
5. Reads like an automated book by a robot stringing together all the data into neat categories.

Conclusion:
Unless you're a student starting out in this field (which I'm not), read books by authors who have an invested angle into their filed, like Steven Pinker or Oliver Sacks.

[David Gallagher · Rating 3 out of 5]

While all-encompassing and comprehensive, it's not an accessible book. Harley doesn't write for the average Joe, and he can even be anti-Chomskian without wanting to (or maybe he does). The bold-letter definitions that accompany the text are quite useful, as are some of the tables and graphs. Other than that, I find some of the photos completely unnecessary (e.g., photo of a child with caption reading, "child." How useful! I thought children were a myth!) Overall, a book that induces headaches, despite the amount of information it contains and its good organization. I'm personally not a fan of books that have are written in columns as though they were newspapers - it is actually more tiring to read than it is fluent. I'm sure there are better textbooks out there, and I sure hope Trevor and I won't have to meet again too soon.

[Siobhan · Rating 4 out of 5]

An extremely useful book for those interested in the psychology of language. Covering many aspects of the discipline, there are times when it seems like a heavy read along with moments where you’re left wanting more detail.

For a general perspective, it’s a great read. However, if you want to go really in depth it is better to be more wide reaching with your reads.

[Marlene Willinger · Rating 4 out of 5]

The writing style was extremely comprehensive and I didn’t have to concentrate immensely to understand what was being said

Would definitely recommend it

[Alper Kumcu · Rating 5 out of 5]

Covering nearly every aspect of psychology of language, it's a must-read reference book in the field. As it does not address issues in detail but gives a general perspective, I highly recommend it for the undergraduate students or those who are at the beginning of their research.

[Leila · Rating 3 out of 5]

Uh, fascinating, but not "accessible".

[Ghulam Murtaza]

read

[Sarah Lameche · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was O.K. I used it then sold it on. It didn't pique my
interest I am afraid.

[Mills College Library]

401.9 H285 2014