Michael Hoey. Lexical Priming: A New Theory of Words and Language. London: Routledge. 2005. xiii + 202 pages. ISBN 0-415-32863-2.

Abstract

Lexical Priming: A new theory of words and language is more than just about words, it is about language and how it is structured. It places words, rather than syntax at the centre of language, and as such it should be of interest to lexicographers. The approach is radical. We have had the separation of lexis and grammar, we have had the lexical grammar of Halliday with words as the most delicate level of grammar, and we have seen the work on lexis of Sinclair, but this theory goes much further in its championship of words as the organising factor of our language. It is radical, but based on a theory that has grown over many years and which has been thoroughly tested on language corpora. It reflects the state of the art in Michael Hoey's reflections on the nature of lexis and language. Michael Hoey is well known for his work on lexis in text and discourse with a number of landmark publications amongst which On the Surface of Discourse (1983) and the award-winning Patterns of Lexis in Text (1991). Along with the present volume, these, and his numerous articles, bear witness to a gradually developing theory of lexis that moves from the surface of text gradually inwards to the present psycho-linguistically oriented work. This is not however a mentalist approach. Hoey is concerned to illustrate that through the elaborate collocational, colligational and semantic choices that are built up in the individual mind, and harmonised in a collective consciousness of language, we develop psychologically significant patterns of choices though lexical priming.