Growing into Language

Liliana Tolchinsky is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at the University of Barcelona, and former coordinator of the doctoral program in Theoretical, Computational, and Applied Linguistics. Her research explores the development of literacy, later language development, writing processes, and the assessment of text quality. From 2008 - 2018 she was a member of the Executive Committee of the ISCH COST Action IS1401 - Strengthening Europeans' capabilities by establishing the European literacy network, and from 2014 - 2021 she was Editor-in-Chief of the journal Culture and Education.Ruth A. Berman is Professor Emerita of Linguistics at Tel Aviv University, where she held the University Chair in Language across the Life Span. Her research areas include Modern Hebrew, cross-linguistic first language acquisition, later language development, and text construction. She is a member of the Israel Academy of Science and Humanities, and honorary life member of the Linguistic Society of America and the Spanish Language Acquisition Association. She was awarded the Israel EMET Prize for Science, Art, and Culture in 2012 and the Israel Prize in Linguistics in 2022.

This unique book is a mini-handbook of human language. Throughout, the emphases are on language in use—narrative, argumentation, literacy, figurative language, and much more. Each chapter is a remarkable mini-course in which the reader will learn the essentials of linguistic structure, cognitive processes of speaking and understanding, sociocultural practices, neurobiology—and all in a developmental framework from infancy through adolescence. The authors are superbly suited to this feat of interdisciplinary mastery. Liliana Tolchinsky and Ruth Berman bring together the fruits of two careers of innovative research in several languages and societies.

• Acknowledgments Prologue 1: Brains for language (and everything else) 2: Language for recollection 3: Language for actuality 4: Language for (im)possible worlds 5: Language for imagery 6: Language for reflection (on language) 7: Language for literacy and literacy for language Afterthoughts Glossary of terms related to brain sites and functions Glossary of terms related to neuro-imaging techniques References Index of authors Index of subjects