Phonological Acquisition: Child Language and Constraint-Based Grammar - Paperback

by Anne-Michelle Tessier (Author)

In this comprehensive introduction, Anne-Michelle Tessier examines how we acquire the sounds and sound patterns of language. Analyzing child speech patterns and their analogues among adult languages while also teaching the basics of Optimality Theory, this novel textbook will help students develop a broad grammatical understanding of phonological acquisition.

Back Jacket

How do children learn to produce speech? What kinds of errors do they make along the way? What can those errors teach us about phonological theory?

In this comprehensive introduction, Anne-Michelle Tessier examines how we acquire the sounds and sound patterns of language. Analyzing child speech patterns and their analogues among adult languages while also teaching the basics of Optimality Theory, this novel textbook will help students develop a broad grammatical understanding of phonological acquisition.

Phonological Acquisition provides
- evidence to support theory from multiple language families, populations and data collection methods
- connections to lexical, morphological and perceptual learning
- a wealth of exercises to guide readers through Optimality Theory reasoning and implementation

Assuming only a basic knowledge of phonology, this textbook is aimed at students of linguistics, developmental psychology, speech pathology and communication disorders. It will also be of interest to professional psychologists, acquisition researchers, clinicians, and anyone concerned with child speech development.

Author Biography

Anne-Michelle Tessier is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Alberta, Canada. She is a formally-trained phonologist specializing in phonological acquisition and its consequences for grammatical theory. She has taught at the University of Michigan, USA, and the 2013 LSA Summer Institute. Her work has appeared in Phonology, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Language Acquisition, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Lingua and Language, and she serves as an Associate Editor at Lingua.
Anne-Michelle Tessier is Associate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Alberta, Canada. She is a formally-trained phonologist specializing in phonological acquisition and its consequences for grammatical theory. She has taught at the University of Michigan, USA, and the 2013 LSA Summer Institute. Her work has appeared in Phonology, Natural Language and Linguistic Theory, Language Acquisition, Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, Lingua and Language, and she serves as an Associate Editor at Lingua.