The Articulate Mammal: An Introduction to Psycholinguistics

Rating:
Summary: Accessible and delightful introduction to psycholinguistics
Review: This book is an accessible and delightful introduction to the field of linguistics. Some of its strong points:

* Good coverage both of the arguments for standard Chomskyan theory, and the experimental evidence that fails to support it * Excellent coverage of child language acquisition * Explanations of important experiments--how they worked, what they showed, and why they mean what they mean

I've used this book successfully in 3 introductory psycholinguistics courses, and have sent a chapter from it to my grandmother to explain what linguistics is. Can't get more accessible than that! At the same time, though, it's useful for anyone who wants to get a handle on the field; it's where I go when I want a refresher.