On the unity of children’s phonological error patterns: Distinguishing symptoms from the problem

Abstract

This article compares the claims of rule- and constraint-based accounts of three seemingly distinct error patterns, namely, Deaffrication, Consonant Harmony and Assibilation, in the sound system of a child with a phonological delay. It is argued that these error patterns are not separate problems, but rather are symptoms of a larger conspiracy to avoid word-initial coronal stops. The clinical implications of these findings are also considered.

• optimality theory
• rules
• conspiracy
• phonological delay

Acknowledgements

I am especially grateful to Judith Gierut, Michele Morrisette, Michael Dow, Grace Reynolds and Chris Green for their discussions with me about this project. Finally, all of us in the field of clinical linguistics owe a great debt to Martin Ball for creating and sustaining an atmosphere and infrastructure for the lively exchange of ideas from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Declaration of interest: This work was supported in part by a grant to Indiana University from the National Institutes of Health (DC001694). The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.