Talking the Talk: Language, Psychology and Science [Hardcover]

Preface to the third edition 16

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1 Language? 20

What is this book about???? 21

What is the plan of this book??????? 21

What is language?? 25

Are there other types of language other than human? 28

How do human languages differ from each other???????? 29

How many languages are there?? 32

Where did language come from?? 35

How has language changed??????? 39

How has English changed??????????? 41

How do we describe language??? 44

How do we do psycholinguistics? 45

Is psycholinguistics a science????? 47

What counts as an explanation in psycholinguistics??? 49

What is a statistical model??????????? 53

What are the issues in modern psycholinguistics???????? 55

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2 Animals????? 60

How do animals communicate???? 61

What do monkeys communicate about? 63

What can we learn from the birds??????????? 64

How powerful are animal communication systems?????? 65

Do dolphins and whales use language? 67

Can we teach language to animals???????? 68

Can parrots talk?????? 70

What about chimps??????????? 71

What did Washoe know??? 74

Why is Kanzi the chimp so important????? 77

Why are animals poor at human language??????? 80

Why is the question of animal language important?????? 82

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3 Children???? 84

When do children learn language?????????? 84

Can a human foetus learn language????? 86

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