Description
Book SynopsisFeaturing numerous updates, revisions, and enhanced coverage, Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon, 4th Edition, present the latest state of our knowledge about the ways we learn words, remember them, understand them, and find the ones we want to use.
Table of ContentsPreface ix
Acknowledgments xi
Abbreviations and Symbols xiii
Part I: Aims and Evidence 1
1 Welcome to Dictionopolis! 3
The human word-store
2 Links in the Chain 18
Assessing the evidence
3 Programming Dumbella 32
Modeling the mental lexicon
4 Brainy Matters 42
The physical underlay
Part II: Basic Ingredients 51
5 Slippery Customers 53
Attempts to pin down the meaning of words
6 Bad Birds and Better Birds 66
Prototype theories
7 Whispering Chambers of the Imagination 80
Mental models
8 The Primordial Atomic Globule Hunt 90
The search for semantic primitives
9 Word-webs 99
Semantic networks
10 Close Companions 113
Words which cling together
11 Lexical All-sorts 119
Parts of speech
12 Verb Power 131
The role of verbs
13 Bits of Words 145
The internal architecture of words
14 Taking Care of the Sounds 157
Dealing with the sound patterns
Part III: Newcomers 169
15 Multiple Meanings 171
The polysemy problem
16 Interpreting Ice-cream Cones 182
Metaphor and metonymy
17 Globbering Mattresses 194
Creating new words
18 What is a Bongaloo, Daddy? 209
How children learn the meaning of words
19 Aggergog Miggers, Wips and Gucks 222
How children cope with the sounds of words
Part IV: The Overall Picture 235
20 Seeking and Finding 237
Selecting words
21 Organized Guesswork 248
Recognizing words
22 Odd Arrangements and Funny Solutions 261
The organization of the mental lexicon
23 Last Word 267
Final comments and future questions
Notes 270
References 292
Index 327
