The Articulate
Mammal

Jean Aitchison’s introduction to psycholinguistics in the Hutchinson University Library, carrying the Open University roundel on its cover. First published 1976, reprinted 1978, 1979 and 1981; this copy is the SECOND EDITION of 1983. ISBN 0 09 150921 1. Its chapter titles are the best in the collection — “The great automatic grammatizator”, “Animals that try to talk”, “Grandmama’s teeth”, “Predestinate grooves”, “Chattering children”, “Celestial unintelligibility”, “The white elephant problem” — each paired with the plain question it actually answers, from “Need anything be innate?” to “Do we need a transformational grammar in order to speak?” The cover photograph of a chimpanzee beside a human infant makes the book’s argument before a word is read.