Acquiring Phonology: A Cross-Generational Case-Study

by Neil Smith

Overview

Children often mispronounce words when learning their first language. Is it because they cannot perceive the differences that adults make or is it because they can't produce the sounds involved? Neither hypothesis is sufficient on its own to explain the facts. On the basis of detailed analyses of his son's and grandson's development, Neil Smith explains the everyday miracle of one aspect of first-language acquisition. Mispronunciations are now attributed to performance rather than to competence, and he argues at length that children's productions are not mentally represented. The study also highlights the constructs of current linguistic theory, arguing for distinctive features and the notion 'onset' and against some of the claims of Optimality Theory and Usage-based accounts. Smith provides an important and engaging update to his previous work, The Acquisition of Phonology, building on ideas previously developed and drawing new conclusions with the aid of fresh data.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521515870
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	12/24/2009
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Linguistics , #124
Pages:	284
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Neil Smith is Professor Emeritus of Linguistics at University College London. His previous publications include The Acquisition of Phonology (Cambridge University Press, 1973), Modern Linguistics (1979, with Deirdre Wilson), The Twitter Machine (1989), The Mind of a Savant (1995, with Ianthi Tsimpli), Chomsky: Ideas and Ideals (Cambridge University Press, 1999, 2nd edition, 2004), Language, Bananas and Bonobos (2002) and Language, Frogs and Savants (2005).

Table of Contents

Preface; Acknowledgements; 1. Preliminaries; 2. The main claims of Smith (1973) and the evidence for them; 3. Competing theories; 4. Z and his development; 5. The nature of the acquisition of phonology; 6. Diachronic lexicon of Z data; 7. Appendices; 8. References; 9. Index.