by Jean Aitchison · Blackwell Publishers · tapa blanda · ISBN 9780631144427
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This book explores the extraordinary human capacity to store and retrieve words. Humans effortlessly store at least 50,000 words in their minds, most of which can be retrieved in a split second. The book provides an up-to-date introduction to the mental lexicon, using examples from linguistic errors, aphasia problems, psycholinguistic experiments, and research by theoretical linguists. It analyzes how people handle this fluctuating mass of words, how they use fluid prototypes instead of fixed definitions to deal with meaning, and how we extend old words and create new ones. The book compares the verbal resources of adults and children, and evaluates recent theories about how we seek out the lexical items we need. It is designed for both psycholinguistics students and anyone interested in the human word store.
scientific article published in July 1994
