PSYCHOLINGUISTICS.Thomas Scovel. Oxford: Oxford UniversityPress, 1998. Pp. xiii + 135. $11.25 paper.

Abstract

The series to which this volume belongs was designed to provide, “. . . a large scale view . . . of language study” (p. ix), with the goal of the present volume being to introduce the reader to the “comprehensive discipline” of psycholinguistics. The volume begins with a survey of the topic in four chapters: introduction, language acquisition, language competence (comprehension and production), and language dissolution. Section 2 contains abstracts of selected readings followed by study questions, and section 3 lists annotated references. Both of these sections are organized by topic area in order to guide further study. The fourth section is a succinct glossary. The author has accomplished the goal for this volume, producing a text that is comprehensive, scholarly, and easily readable.