This book covers everything related to aspect in the field of language acquisition; I was amazed by how the authors managed to do this in such a clear manner in only 261 pages. The book discusses numerous topics related to the acquisition of aspect: from tense to grammatical to lexical aspect, from nativist to functionalist approaches, from a connectionist model to Universal Grammar, and from first language (L1) to second language (L2). It also covers relevant previous research in the acquisition of tense and aspect in Chinese, English, and Japanese. Although the aim of the book is not an extensive survey of the research done on aspect in all possible languages, given the importance of the work done on aspect in Slavic languages, one might have expected to see more discussion of this area.

Chapter 1 is concise and immediately makes clear to what extent this book will be of interest to the reader. The authors have two goals: first, to provide an extensive overview of the research of aspect in Chinese, English, and Japanese; and second, to examine the acquisition of aspect crosslinguistically (Chinese, English, and Japanese) and developmentally (by investigating acquisition at different ages, including adults learning an L2). By the end of the book, both goals are successfully met. The book consists of eight chapters; I will briefly comment on the content of each.

Chapter 2 includes an overview of theoretical work done on both grammatical and lexical aspect, including the work on tense by Klein (1994). Although the space limitations do not allow for detailed descriptions, this book is a helpful starting point for researchers who would like to find out which theory is relevant for the work they are developing. Chapter 3 compares nativist and functionalist hypotheses about aspect in both L1 and L2 acquisition. This chapter includes a very helpful experimental section—methodology, with a brief description and results. The direct comparison between L1 and L2 learners is also valuable. I felt that the book included less L2 theoretical background than Hawkins (2001). However, this book is not dedicated to L2.

Chapters 4–6 cover the work conducted in English, Chinese, and Japanese. These chapters include discussions of three papers by the book's authors—Li and Bowerman (1998), Shirai and Andersen (1995), and Shirai (1998). As before, there is continuous comparison between cognitive and nativist approaches.

Chapter 7 presents a connectionist model of the acquisition of aspect. For those, like myself, with limited understanding of connectionist models, this is perhaps the most intriguing chapter. In spite of a certain apprehension prior to reading it, I found the content of this chapter highly accessible and interesting; once again, I was encouraged to think about the importance of input and frequency—notions that often escape the attention of generative acquisitionists.