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KIRBY, S., Function, Selection, and Innateness. The Emergence of Language Universals. Oxford University Press, 1999. 172p. Hardback. In this important and highly original work Simon Kirby proposes a new method for addressing a major issue in the explanation of language universals. If many universals are to be explained by processing efficiency, then how do the preferences of performance actually become the fixed, and variant, conventions of grammars that we observe in current language samples? Kirby's computer simulations model the 'adaptive mechanism', and his discussion of the relationship between function, selection and innateness is both clarifying and timely. John A. Hawkins, Department of Linguistics, University of Southern California 18/11/1998 (Publisher's information). € 76.09 (New) (Printed on Demand) (approx. delivery time: 4 weeks) ISBN: 9780198238119