Books like The psychology of language by Trevor A. Harley

Steven Pinker explains how language emerges from innate biological mechanisms, explores recent research on language acquisition and brain function, and addresses common questions about why languages vary and why learning them later is difficult.

David Crystal explores the powerful, everyday tool of language, from its origins and child acquisition to social status and politeness, with engaging clarity and wit.

"Psycholinguistics is the study of how humans produce and understand language. This textbook provides a clear introduction to the subject and is designed for students with only a basic knowledge of linguistics. It introduces central aspects of the production and comprehension of language, using examples and exercises to reinforce key points. Students will gain an understanding of the processes and representations involved in language use, and how to apply such understanding to the analysis of data. Each of the larger subject areas of language production and comprehension is broken down into stages, such as putting together sentences and finding words. As students investigate these levels and processes, they also explore the interactions between them. They are encouraged to consider what language users might carry around in their heads as part of their linguistic knowledge (what information we store for words, what rule systems we have for generating word and sentence structures, for example), and how this stored knowledge relates to the structures and rules proposed by theoretical linguistics"--

"This textbook offers a cutting edge introduction to psycholinguistics, exploring the cognitive processes underlying language acquisition and use. Provides a step-by-step tour through language acquisition, production, and comprehension, from the word level to sentences and dialogue Incorporates both theory and data, including in-depth descriptions of the experimental evidence behind theories Incorporates a comprehensive review of research in bilingual language processing, sign language, reading, and the neurological basis of language production and comprehension Approaches the subject from a range of perspectives, including psychology, linguistics, philosophy, computer science, neurology, and neurophysiology Includes a full program of resources for instructors and students, including review exercises, a test bank, and lecture slides, available upon publication at www.wiley.com/go/traxler "--