Discovering Speech, Words, and Mind

Discovering Speech, Words, and Mind examines language as a cognitive science, applying scientific tools to the study of various aspects of speech. Written in a lively and highly accessible style for students with no background in linguistics or psychology, readers are guided through the fundamentals of speech production, speech perception, word-formation, language acquisition and speech disorders.

Focusing on speech production and recognition at the word-level and below, the book examines morphological, phonological, and phonetic perspectives. It explicitly connects three avenues of exploration – speech, words, and mind – through an examination of how the informational content of the speech signal relates to phonological units; it goes on to describe how these units combine in the morphological structuring of words and are accessed as the speech signal is processed by the listener. Featuring numerous illustrations and exercises, and accompanied by further online exercises and data, this is an ideal introduction to the science of language.