For most native speakers of English, the meanings of ordinary words like "blue," "cup," "stumble," and "carve" seem quite natural and self-evident. It turns out, however, that they are far from universal, as shown by recent research in the discipline known as semantic typology. To be sure, the roughly 6,500 languages around the world do have many similarities in the sorts of concepts they encode. But they also vary greatly in numerous ways, such as how they partition particular conceptual ...

Words are among the basic building blocks of language, allowing us to share a tremendous range of ideas. This book summarizes research on how words are represented, organized, and processed in our brain, offering a fascinating window into the neural basis of language. It begins with a foundational overview of linguistics and neuroscience, including neurons, networks and functional areas. It then delves into key topics and theories. It explores such questions as How do the meanings of words...

This eBook+ version includes the following enhancements:Over 100 chapter-end study questions for students to test their understanding of the chapter contentOver 45 links to author recommended videos that feature the field’s leading researchers presenting on the topics covered in the textCognitive Neuroscience of Language provides an up-to-date, wide-ranging, and pedagogically practical survey of the most important developments in th...