Main content

Professor Jean Aitchison examines the word-learning ability inbuilt in humans, and explains how we manage to recall words at speed when we need them.

This year's Reith Lecturer is Jean Aitchison, a Professor of Language and Communication in the Faculty of English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford.

In her fourth lecture, Professor Jean Aitchison examines words themselves. An educated native speaker of English knows at least 50,000 words and word-learning ability is inbuilt in humans. Professor Aitchison explains how we manage to recall these words at speed when we need them, and how meaning and sound are interwoven.

Available now

30 minutes

Broadcast

  • Tue 27 Feb 1996 09:00

Featured in...

New to the Reith Lectures? Here’s where to start

Four lectures recommended by the series producer.

Podcast