Aitchison Jean. Words in the Mind: An Introduction to the Mental Lexicon

Third edition. — Blackwell, 1990. — x, 229 pages. — ISBN: 0-631-14442-0.This book deals with words, and how humans learn them, remember them, understand them, and find the ones they want. In brief, it discusses the structure and content of the human word-store or ‘mental lexicon’, with particular reference to the spoken language of native English speakers. Since the first two editions of “Words in the Mind” were published, work on the lexicon has exploded. This is reflected in this new edition, which contains substantial additions. One new chapter has been added on layering and meaning change, and several others have been considerably expanded. The notes and suggestions for further reading have been updated, and numerous new references have been included. The book remains accessible in style and easy to read for both undergraduates and non-specialists.Aims and Evidence
Welcome to Dictionopolis! The human word-store
Links in the Chain Assessing the evidence
Programming Dumbella Modelling the mental lexicon
Basic Ingredients
Slippery Customers Attempts to pin down the meaning of words
Bad Birds and Better Birds Prototype theories
The Primordial Atomic Globule Hunt The search for semantic primitives
Word-webs Semantic networks
What is a Bongaloo, Daddy? How children learn the meaning of words
Lexical All-sorts Parts of speech
Bits of Words The internal architecture of words
Taking Care of the Sounds Dealing with the sound patterns
Aggergog Miggers, Wips and Gucks How children cope with the sound structure of words
Novelties
Interpreting Ice-cream Cones Extending old words
Globbering Mattresses Creating new words
The Overall Picture
Seeking and Finding Selecting words
Organized Guesswork Recognizing words
Odd Arrangements and Funny Solutions The organization of the mental lexicon
Last Word Final comments andfuture questions