Optimality Theory , Phonological Acquisition and Disorders

This volume represents a synthesis of collaborative research from Indiana University’s Learnability Project. Its chapters report data, methods, treatments, and findings derived primarily from corpora of nearly three hundred English-learning children aged 3 to 7 with ‘functional (non-organic) phonological delays’, referred to hereafter in this review as PDs. The book sustains an extended argument for the Project’s long-standing approach: using current theories of phonology (here, Optimality Theory) to interpret PD grammars and guide clinical therapies, and likewise testing OT theory against the facts of PD acquisition. The book aims to reach a wide audience of students and researchers, including phonologists, psychologists and speech language pathologists, and its authors have spent considerable effort on the explanation of basic concepts in OT, experimental design and phonological delays. The book is structured into five sections: the first serves as introduction to the entire collection, the next three present a cluster of Research Reports on a particular research area, and the last concludes with an epilogue.