Book Review: “Cognitive neuroscience of language”

Abstract

Reviews the book, Cognitive Neuroscience of Language by David Kemmerer (see record [rid]2015-00295-000[/rid]). Kemmerer’s book is intended to be a textbook for graduate and advanced undergraduate students. The first chapters offer a general introduction to the workings of the human brain, as well as an overview over the different methods for mapping it that are being used in the field. This is followed by a thorough discussion of what was and still is being learned from the investigation of aphasic syndromes, before Kemmerer moves on to attend to a general discussion of speech production and perception which also includes a separate chapter on prosody covering common linguistic as well as emotional prosody. The author’s course of action continues with chapters dedicated to what he calls 'other modalities,' whereas he limits this not only to sign language but also addresses reading and writing. The book continues with cutting-edge considerations of the neural underpinnings and correlates of the linguist’s familiar and beloved semantics, morphology, and syntax. It is especially noteworthy that Kemmerer is very much aware of the current state of linguistic research in regard to linguistic diversity in all these subfields and incorporates them into his descriptions. In addition, at the end of every chapter Kemmerer has included a summary of key points and up-to-date suggestions for further reading. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved)