The chapters in this volume represent an approach to the notion of language transfer which reflects the paradigm shift originating from cognitive science. The perception and expression of ideas and events in one language in terms of another language is considered only a special case of one of the fundamental processes in human problem solving-reasoning by analogy. Transfer in language production is seen as a basic metaphorical concept denoting language interaction that must be discussed in connection with other metaphorical concepts denoting language interaction as well. If this is true, the assessment of language transfer in light of the production paradigm has hardly begun. It will continue to be a topic of far-reaching consequences for a theory of language processing and language acquisition.

Twenty-four researchers from various academic disciplines dealing with the production of language, such as theoretical and applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, social psychology, psycholinguistics, and psychology of language, contributed to this volume. The chapters center on five areas: psycholinguistic models of production; second language speech production; cognition and production; narrative understanding and production; and verbal interaction. The aim of the volume is to come to a general picture of the range of questions and methods of investigation dealing with language production.