Abstract
Introduction
This second edition of Vihman’s (1996) Phonological development: The origins of language in the child focuses specifically on the first two years of children’s phonological development. Much of the original book is retained, with additional chapters on the first 18 months, different learning mechanisms, experimentation and bilingualism. Whilst the chapter on prosody is missing in this edition, some discussion is provided in Chapter 6. As with the previous edition, the book takes a functionalist perspective of language acquisition. Whilst it does include descriptions of formal approaches, these are mostly within the ‘Theories, I & II’ chapters, which specifically address theoretical distinctions. By limiting itself to the children’s first 24 months, the book concentrates explicitly on possibly the most crucial – and interesting – period of language acquisition in typically developing children.
Summary
The first chapter presents the reader with an overview of previous research into language acquisition, and sets out some outstanding questions. It goes on to describe in detail the Chomksyan (‘formalist’) perspective of the language acquisition process, and subsequently provides a deconstruction of the argument, pointing out recent findings. Vihman goes on to suggest some goals of research into phonological development. The introduction finishes with a description of methodological issues, and a disclaimer that the book adopts a functionalist approach in general.
The next chapter, on the precursors to language, demonstrates some difficulties faced by a developmental learning account, but explains that this still succeeds over innateness approaches given research on learning mechanisms. A tabular summary details the transition from early capacities to referential language use, in terms of the relationship of the development between vocal form and meaning. The reader is taken through five broad age groupings between 0 and 18 months, each providing detailed topics in perception and production specific to that age.
Chapter 3 focuses on capacities and changes in perception development. After listing some history and revealing some problems, the book goes quickly through investigative methods in perception experiments and their efficacy, and discusses speech discrimination abilities. An important section on the role of experience describes discoveries regarding statistical learning. This leads to a review of models of developmental change which concisely summarises considerable literature on the area. The chapter ends with cross-modal perception issues and the more recently posited mirror-neuron system in humans.
Chapter 4 covers the development of infants’ vocal production capabilities. Several ‘stage models’ of production development are displayed, all varying slightly in the ages designated for stages, but sharing similar orders. The potential importance of social context is made clear, with comments that pre-canonical vocal and articulator play occurs mostly in the context of caregiver interaction. An important consideration is also made here of the infant’s vocal tract and its rapid development, and later the infant’s use of proprioception for vocal learning.
Following these two chapters on general capabilities, Chapters 5 and 6 provide additional information regarding the specifically linguistic capabilities of children. Chapter 5 explains the perceptual abilities infants develop in their first year in order to access the world of spoken communication around, and directed to, them (i.e. Infant Directed Speech). A summary of cross-linguistic studies into infant segmentation carries through an interesting theme that the process of perceptual learning begins with whole word recognition, rather than with the child learning individual sounds. This holistic approach suggests that the child’s own production, memory and prosody, as well as single words in the input, may all influence perception abilities. Calling into question some of Chomsky’s early (1965) suggestions on learning, the chapter finishes with a summary of distributional learning studies, and identifies some unresolved problems.
The description of the transition to language use in Chapter 6 demonstrates the asymmetry between word comprehension and production. Subsequently, the reader is exposed to the child’s earliest stages of the systematic use of vocal productions for intentional communication and/or word use. Parts of this subsection may appear to have less to do with phonology or phonetics, and be more related to semantics and social contexts; nevertheless, it is in keeping with the book’s emergentist and holistic stance. Vihman makes it clear that these are important aspects to consider in relation to the development of phonology in the child’s early life. Incorporating cross-sectional and longitudinal evidence, the remainder of the chapter explains the development of children’s phonetic and phonological systematicity. Importantly, problems with the interpretation of findings are detailed here.
Focusing in Chapter 7 on the phonological aspect of word learning, Vihman provides a comprehensive summary of numerous experimental studies carried out in the area. This includes issues from perception, cross-linguistic findings and a detailed and lengthy subsection on phonological specificity and lexical representations, which will be of particular interest to those interested in different experimental methodologies. Some discussion of Event Related Potentials follows, providing an up-to-date account of current research methodologies.
For simplicity and to utilise a higher proportion of studies for commentary on children acquiring more than one language, Chapter 8 focuses on bilingual findings, rather than multilingual. A brief overview of parent strategies for encouraging bilingual development is followed by a review of research into bilingual perception and production development. This includes details of key studies within each area; as well as limitations and recommendations for progress. The chapter highlights the complexity of bilingual investigations, where multiple considerations – including limitations – must be handled when constructing methodologies. Vihman goes on to deliver a fascinating overview of the debate on whether bilingual learners have unitary or dual systems of phonology, and makes it clear that there is yet considerable work to be done in this general area.
Differing from the original edition, the updated chapters on theory are cleverly saved until last, so that the reader understands the research and any potential issues before being too influenced by theoretical stances. The first of the ‘Theories’ chapters (Chapter 9) reviews the history of the formal approach to phonological acquisition, which generally assumes some innate knowledge of language; beginning with Jakobson and structuralism, and leading on to generativism, non-linear phonology, principles and parameters, prosodic phonology and eventually to Optimality Theory (OT). Here, less experienced readers can gain a helpful explanation of OT tableaux, with data alongside. The remainder of the chapter consists of a description of two perception models, which share certain features with formal models. An informative questions section provides the reader with references to possible answers and further directions.
The second ‘Theories’ chapter describes functionalist models, which derive from the assumption that phonology is emergent, developing from the interplay of speech-motor and perceptual systems without the need for any innate knowledge of language. As these models are not necessarily directly related to one another – though they share similar premises – they are only broadly organised into historical order. Therefore, they constitute a mix of approaches, most relying on research into both production and perception, as opposed to the formal models that focus mainly on the former. Vihman discusses biological models, usage based models, exemplar learning, whole-word phonology and templates. In addition, she goes into depth on some classic and more specific approaches, and delivers important elucidation on the functionality of particular frameworks and approaches, referring to data in the Appendices. Helpfully, all three main models are allocated their own summaries and appraisals; however, they are not necessarily compared here.
In contrast to the first edition, this edition has a conclusion chapter, albeit brief. This concentrates on summarising the book, but also highlights that although the book’s contents are divided between perception and production, the link between the two should always be kept in mind. Vihman recommends that any concept of phonological development must necessarily include an understanding of both, and provides some ideas of how this link can be conceived. The chapter closes with some comments on the effects of language use on lexical learning, and calls for more empirical research as well as more theoretical work.
Finally, two appendices meticulously detail sources of data used in the book and provide information on proto-words. A third appendix serves as a lengthy illustration of templates, one of Vihman’s key interests. This includes data, explanation and rationalisation, as well as references to relevant work.
Conclusion
Whilst this is a second edition, it is nonetheless refreshing to see a book tackling language acquisition specifically from the point of view of phonology, and all the more exciting for focusing on the first two years. Although the book is set up as biased for functionalism, the theme runs through gently with much of the book relying on the reporting of important experimental findings, rather than being vitriolic. Consequently, readers looking for critiques or elucidations on formal or functional approaches will be advantaged here (particularly from a functionalist perspective). As with the previous edition, the investigations here are almost exclusively restricted to cases of typical development, with only one small subsection devoted to atypical development in infancy. In addition, there is again a lack of discussion on sociolinguistic features; it would be interesting to include children’s methods of learning variants, and perception and production of their own and other accents (Wells, 1996). This final point perhaps reflects that a comprehensive work programme has yet to draw any conclusions ready for inclusion in a detailed book such as this.
Overall, Phonological development: The first two years certainly meets its goals, and is an authoritative volume. The book is well organised, and highly accessible. It provides a pedagogic impression in part, so will be valuable for students, but will also be useful for lecturers and those looking for a succinct compendium detailing research methods and constructing materials. There are frequent lists of key questions, some with answers along with the relevant research where available, and some with calls for further research where needed. This strategy underpins an effective dynamic suggesting that, although this book is comprehensive, it is by no means the end of the story.