Psychology of Language: A Critical Introduction

A comprehensive textbook, Psychology of Language examines both the formal/structural aspects of linguistics and psycholinguistics and the concerns of sociolinguistics, conversation analysis, and social semiotics. In a clear and lively presentation, author Michael A. Forrester discusses three levels of communication:

• Thinking, the cognitive processes of self-communication
• Talk, with an emphasis on everyday conversational behavior
• Text, including the study of reading and writing

Within these areas, Forrester introduces a wide range of subjects, from language structure, semantics, and deixis to conversation, power relations in language, interpretation, and postmodern psychology.

Thorough and informative, Psychology of Language provides students of linguistics, sociolinguistics, rhetoric, and social psychology with a critical overview that integrates diverse themes.

Michael A Forrester is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at the University of Kent, Canterbury. He is the author of The Development of Young Children′s Social Cognitive Skills (1992).