This book presents Error-Selective Learning (ESL), an error-driven mo-del of OT phonological acquisition in which is both restrictive and gradual. Together, these two properties provide a model that can derive many attested intermediate stages in phonological develop-ment, while also understanding how learners eventually converge on the target grammar. ESL is restrictive because it relies on a restrictive ranking algorithm (Prince and Tesar 2004; Hayes 2004) to learn from its errors. At the same time ESL is gradual, because it uses a novel method for selecting errors that drive minimal...

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...

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...