Semantic Processing: Theory and Practice

Research in semantics is conducted in a wide variety of disciplines, and the strength of this book is in bringing those areas together in one volume. Contributions come from an international group of applied researchers. Models of semantics are being influenced by research on the development of semantic processing in children, and by work on the disruption of semantic processing in brain damage such as stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. Clinical work is benefiting from the application of theoretical models while pathological findings are crucial for testing and developing such models. The book has chapters on: models of semantic processing, connectionist modelling, sentence processing in children and adults, semantic processing in the normal elderly, semantic category disorders, semantic therapy in aphasia, semantic processing in Alzheimer’s disease, semantic dementia and conceptual semantics. The book is aimed primarily at the undergraduate reader although some chapters will be of interest to graduate and research students. Students of linguistics, psychology and speech and language sciences will find the book immensely useful.