A Glossary of Language and Mind

Up until 1959 psychologists studied the workings of the mind and linguists studied languages. In that year Chomsky started hammering these two distinct lines of approach together. Increasingly now, psychologists are coming to appreciate that language is the main thing that makes humans human, and even, that abnormal handling and understanding of language is one of the main things which makes abnormal humans abnormal. Equally, linguists have begun to appreciate that language acquisition is not a simple mechanical process but depends on general cognitive abilities.

It is still true that there are two different sorts of study in psycholinguistics. Psychologists...