Why am I passionate about this?
I began my career in 1988 as an English language teacher in Japan. I originally went for a one-year adventure, but soon found myself fascinated by language, and how it is learned and used. This eventually led to a professorship at the University of Nottingham, where I have the good fortune to consult on language issues worldwide. I have researched language extensively, but all of my previous publications were meant for an academic/educational audience. I wanted to produce a book for general readership which outlines all that I have learned in 35 years of language research, and Language Power is the result. I hope you find it useful in your language-based life.
Norbert's book list on learning and using language well
Why did Norbert love this book?
Most languages consist of huge numbers of different words. For instance, estimates for English range from hundreds of thousands to millions of words.
While no person knows every word in a language, they will still hold a repertoire of many, many thousands of words in their mind (their mental lexicon). Dictionaries are useful for describing this ocean of words, but an intriguing question is how the human mind manages to learn and remember so many, and then to find the exact ones it wishes to use from the numerous alternatives.
Aitchison’s genius lies in how she is able to draw on quite complex psychological research, but yet still distill it into a fascinating and very readable account of how the mind achieves these formidable tasks. You will come away from this book with an increased appreciation of just how clever the mind is in acquiring, storing, and retrieving vast amounts…
1 author picked Words in the Mind as one of their favorite books, and they share why you should read it.
This book deals with words, and how humans learn them, remember them, understand them and find the ones they want. It discusses the structure and content of the human word-store or 'mental lexicon' with particular reference to the spoken language of those with English as their native language. Since the first two editions of Words in the Mind were published, work on the lexicon has expanded quickly. This growth is reflected in this third edition, which contains substantial new material. There is an extra chapter on layering and meaning change, and several others have been considerably enlarged. The notes and…
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