I. Introduction
This theory is
to be distinguished from the approach known as natural generative phonology
(see Natural Generative Phonology).
The speech of very young children is clearly different in certain
respects from that of adults speaking the same language. Natural phonology
assumes that children’s speech is governed by a large number of natural
phonetic constraints (see sect. 1), whereas adults have learned to suspend many
of these constraints (Sects.2) and there by enjoy the benefits of a more
complex phonological system. In
each language, mature speakers have learned to suspend certain constraints, but
leave others unaffected (Sect. 5). The set of unaffected constraints varies
from one language to another; this often has striking effects when a word is
borrowed from one language into another (see Sect.6; see also Loanwords:
Phonological Treatment).
Natural
phonologists have used the term ‘process’ to refer to a natural phonetic
constraint, i.e., a constraint which simplifies articulation. Processes are
typical of young children’s speech. The following are examples of processes:
(a) Consonant clusters are reduced to single
segments (fly [flai] becomes[fai]).
(b) Unstressed syllables are deleted (potato
[p ‘ teitou] becomes [‘teitu]).
(c) Voiced stops (e.g., [b], [d]) are made
voiceless ([p], [t]) since the airflow required by voicing is interrupted by
the fact of complete closure of the oral tract.
(d) Consonants produced with the tongue body
(e.g., [k], [g]) become articulated with the tongue blade ([t], [d]
respectively). Frontness of
backness, and lip rounding or spreading, permeate all the segments of a word.
The writer’s son had at one stage of his development [dadi] ‘Daddy,’ with
frontness ([a].. cardinal vowel no.
4)
and nonrounding spreading from the imtial [d]’ [momu] ‘Mummy,’ with labiality
of initial [m] spreading as rounding and concomitant backness to the remainder
of the word, and [g gw] ‘doggie,’
with backness and nonlabiality of initial [g] spreading throughout.
Some
of these processes may have the effect of giving rise to sounds which are not
to be found in the adult language.
The back unrounded vowel [w] of [g fw] (see (e) above) is a case in
point; again, at one stage the same child produced scarf with the final fricative
assimilated to the initial velar plosive; [gax]-the velar fricative [x] did not
appear in his parents’ speech.
Three
types of process have been distinguished:
(a) Prosodic: mapping words, phrases and
sentences on to basic rhythm and intonaation paatterns.
(b) Fortition: strengthening a sound (e.g.
devoicing of obstruents), intensifying the contrast of a sound with a
neighboring sound (dissimilation), adjusting the
timing
of movements so as to have the effect of inserting a new sound (sense[sens]→[sents])
or of making a nonsyllabic consonant syllabic (prayed [preid]→
[preid]).
(c)
Lenition: weakening a sound (e.g., making a stop into a fricative between
vowels), decreasing the contrast of a sound with a neighboring sound
(assimilation, harmony), adjusting the timing of movements so as to have the
effect of deleting a sound (cents [scnts]→[sens]) or of making
a syllabic consonant nonsyllabic (parade [preid]→[preid]).
It
is claimed that fortitions are aimed at increasing intelligibility for the
hearer, but that they often have the concomitant effect of easing
pronounccability; lenitions, on the other hand, have this latter effect as
their exclusive goal. The effect
of fortitions becomes salient in slower, more formal speech styles, while
lenitions are more likely to operate in faster, more colloquial styles.
Some
processes may govern phonological alternations. For example, in German the cool
meaning ‘dog’ is pronounced [hund] when followed by a suffix beginning with a
vowel; Hunde ‘dogs’ is [hund] followed by plural suffix [a]; in the nominative
singular, however, where there is no suffix, one has Hund [hunt]; this [d]-[t]
alternation is brought about by the devoicing process ( c) above (Sect. 1),
which remains operative word-finally in German.
However,
not all alternations arise from the operation of processes. Thus, in English,
when electric takes the suffixity, its final /k/ becomes /s/ (‘velar
softening’) when serene lakes the sulfixity the long [I:] becomes short
[e](‘trisyltabic laxing’). The principles governing these alternations are
called ‘rules’ in the theory. Rules typically operate in selective fashion (not
all /k/ phonemes become /s/ when followed by written i or e-kit, keep), are
sensitive to grammatical considerations, and may tolerate exceptions (obese
retains long [I;] in obesity, even though trisyllabic laxing would be expected
to occur). Processes, on the other hand operate across the board with no
exceptions. Rules need to be learnt, processes are (at least partially) unlearnt.
Bruck, Anthony. Robert A. Fox and
Michael W La Galy. (Ed.) Natural Phonology. 1974.
Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society.
Stampe, David. A Dissertation on Natural Phonology.
1979. New York: Garland
Publishing.