Description: Bringing together well-known researchers, this collection of essays focuses on constraints in phonological acquisition. The first two chapters review the research in its broader context, including an introduction by the editors that provides a concise tutorial on Optimality 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.
Brief description: 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.
Review Quotes: "This outstanding volume presents a state-of-the-art overview of linguistic research into the acquisitions of phonology."
CSA Linguistics and Language Behavior Abstracts