ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a theory of phonological development based on a reanalysis of the work of Charles Smith. While the theory is intended to be a generative theory, in many respects it appeals more to traditional phonological notions, such as the phoneme, than have earlier generative theories of phonology, and for many specialists in developmental psycholinguistics and speech pathology may well be more amenable. The chapter reviews certain important aspects of the phonological theory proposed by Chomsky and Bresnan M. Halle. It outlines some of the recent trends in phonological theory. These include metrical phonology and syllabic phonology. The main characteristics of the SPE approach were: phonetic representations of words are derived from underlying phonological forms by a series of phonological trans-formational generative rules. The chapter presents a presents a brief overview of the 'classical' generative model of development. It discusses some of the implications the new model has for the practising 'clinical phonologist'.
