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Constraints in Phonological Acquisition

Constraints in Phonological Acquisition

Constraints in Phonological Acquisition

René Kager, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
Joe Pater, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Wim Zonneveld, Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands
April 2009
Available
Paperback
9780521108645

    This outstanding 2004 volume presents an overview of linguistic research into the acquisition of phonology. Bringing together well-known researchers in the field, it focuses on constraints in phonological acquisition (as opposed to rules), and offers concrete examples of the formalization of phonological development in terms of constraint ranking. The first two chapters situate the research in its broader context, with an introduction by the editors providing a brief general tutorial on Optimality Theory. Chapter two serves to highlight the history of constraints in studies of phonological development, which predates their current ascent to prominence in phonological theory. The remaining chapters address a number of partially overlapping themes: the study of child production data in terms of constraints, learnability issues, perceptual development and its relation to the development of production, and second-language acquisition.

    • Overview of state-of-the-art research in phonological acquisition
    • Contributions by well-known researchers (Hayes, Jusczyk, Menn, Prince, Smolensky, Tesar)
    • Introduction offers a bird's-eye view of research leading up to current situation

    Reviews & endorsements

    '… the volume has already achieved considerable success … this volume is a must for anyone working in the area of phonological acquisition or optimality theory … the volume would also make an excellent textbook for a graduate course …' Journal of Phonology

    See more reviews

    Product details

    January 2004
    Hardback
    9780521829632
    428 pages
    229 × 152 × 27 mm
    0.8kg
    105 tables
    Available

    Table of Contents

    • List of contributors
    • Preface
    • 1. Introduction René Kager, Joe Pater and Wim Zonneveld
    • 2. Saving the baby: making sure that old data survive new theories Lise Menn
    • 3. Markedness and faithfulness constraints in child phonology Amalia Gnanadesikan
    • 4. Input elaboration, head faithfulness and evidence for representation in the acquisition of left-edge clusters in West Germanic Heather Goad and Yvan Rose
    • 5. Phonological acquisition in Optimality Theory: the early stages Bruce Hayes
    • 6. Syllable types in cross-linguistic and developmental grammars Clara C. Levelt and Ruben van de Vijver
    • 7. Bridging the gap between receptive and productive development with minimally violable constraints Joe Pater
    • 8. Learning phonotactic distributions Alan Prince and Bruce Tesar
    • 9. Emergence of Universal Grammar in foreign word adaptions Shigeko Shinohara
    • 10. The initial and final states: theoretical implications and experimental explorations of Richness of the Base Paul Smolensky, Lisa Davidson and Peter Jusczyk
    • 11. Child word stress competence: an experimental approach Wim Zonneveld and Dominique Nouveau.
      Contributors
    • René Kager, Joe Pater, Wim Zonneveld, Lise Menn, Amalia Gnanadesikan, Heather Goad, Yvan Rose, Bruce Hayes, Clara C. Levelt, Ruben van de Vijver, Alan Prince, Bruce Tesar, Shigeko Shinohara, Paul Smolensky, Lisa Davidson, Peter Jusczyk, Dominique Nouveau

    • Editors
    • René Kager , Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands

      René Kager is Associate Professor of Language Development at Utrecht University. His books include A Metrical Theory of Stress and Destressing in Dutch (1989), The Prosody-Morphology Interface (with H. van der Hulst and W. Zonneveld, Cambridge 1999) and Optimality Theory (Cambridge, 1999).

    • Joe Pater , University of Massachusetts, Amherst

      Joe Pater is Assistant Professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. He has published in a number of journals including Phonology, Language Acquisition and the Journal of Child Language.

    • Wim Zonneveld , Universiteit Utrecht, The Netherlands

      Wim Zonneveld is Professor of Linguistics and Phonology at Utrecht University. He is the author of A Formal Theory of Exceptions in Generative Phonology (1978), Klemtoon & Metrische Fonologie (with M. Trommelen, Couthinho, 1989) and Prosody-Morphology Interface (with R. Kager and H. van der Hulst, Cambridge 1999).