Subject collection: Psychology (246 titles, 1978–2015)

This is the second of two volumes – the first volume being Waltraud Brennenstuhl’s Control and Ability (P&B III:4) – treating biocybernetical questions of language. This book starts out from an investigation of the (neuro-)biological relevancy of natural language from the point of view of grammar and the lexicon. Furthermore, the basic mechanisms of the self-organization of organisms in their environments are discussed, in so far as they lead to linguistic control and abilities.

Linguistics has suffered from the lack of interaction between theoretical and experimental activities. In order to carry out experimental studies in language it is, of course, necessary to have a descriptive system for the stimuli, and formal linguistics has provided a plethora of alternative possibilities. In addition, the theory can perhaps suggest some hints as to the direction experimental studies might take, at least to the extent that it suggest various kinds of relation among syntactic or phonological structures. But the theory alone cannot determine the nature of such relations in the cognitive or processing system of the language user. The first section of this volume addresses several of the key theoretical controversies in linguistics and attempts to specify the kinds of experimental evidence which might contribute to their ultimate resolution. The papers in the second section concern the collection of that evidence and its interpretation.

Versprechen und Verlesen (1895) is distinguished more by observational accuracy than by theoretical sophistication; but it is exactly this characteristic which has proved its lasting value. It is a scrupulously collected, usefully organized, and very large corpus of errors, providing material on which hypotheses can be tested and generalisations made. Others before Meringer had speculated about what speech errors might demonstrate; he was the first to attempt to find out. In this Meringer made a worthy and lasting contribution to linguistic and psychological study.This fac simile edition is preceded by an Introductory article by Anne Cutler and David Fay.