Phonological Development: The First Two Years

The field of child phonology has seen major developments in research, with the emergence of exciting new methods in the 18 years since the publication of Vihman’s classic first edition. Drawing on this progress, Vihman has updated and completely revised her successful text to focus on the very latest research in phonological development in the first two years of life – the period of the most rapid learning and the most dramatic developmental advances. Retaining its unique approach and coverage, the new edition expands the chapters on perception, vocal production and the transition into language use, including sections on the perception and production of native–language speech rhythms. A new chapter provides an overview of communicative and attentional as well as perceptual and vocal development in the first 18 months, with an additional focus on both implicit and explicit learning mechanisms. There are also entirely new chapters on segmentation and distributional learning, experiments in word learning, and bilingual phonological development. In addition, Phonological Development reviews theoretical models of perception as well as formalist and functionalist theoretical approaches to phonological development and concludes by considering the link between perception and production and the role of lexical knowledge and use in further learning. Vihman’s much needed and timely update will provide an invaluable source book for students and researchers alike.

Marilyn May Vihman is Professor of Language and Linguistic Science at the University of York. She is co–editor of The Emergence of Phonology: Whole–word approaches and cross–linguistic evidence (with T. Keren–Portnoy, 2013), which includes both classic and new empirical studies of phonological development in eight languages.