scispace - formally typeset
Search or ask a question

Showing papers on "Naturalness published in 1970"


01 Nov 1970
TL;DR: The output of the phonological component of a transformational-generative grammar requires a phonetic specification which should be in line with the facts of speech production, and any consideration of the concept of naturalness in the formulation of phonological rules must take into account these two major recurrent underlying bases: physiological (or neuro-physiological) factors and psychological factors.
Abstract: The output of the phonological component of a transformational-generative grammar requires a phonetic specification which should be in line with the facts of speech production. This paper is concerned with what properly belongs in the phonology and what in the phonetics and the criteria underlying the decisions to account for one phenomenon in one component and another phenomenon in the other component. Total abstraction seems to be on the wane as far as the phonological component goes and attempts are being made at the present time to incorporate a certain degree of naturalness into phonology — where ‘naturalness’ means in a loose definition ‘that which seems to be a common occurrence in many languages’, and, more rigorously, ‘that which has underlying physiological or psychological motivation’. Thus, as Schane (1969) and others have shown, any consideration of the concept of naturalness in the formulation of phonological rules must take into account these two major recurrent underlying bases for a criterion of naturalness: physiological (or neuro-physiological) factors and psychological factors. The psychological category governs rules concerned with perceptual or psychological phenomena such as the tendency for maximum differentiation (where categories or functions of categories are polarised as in the maximal opposition between a voiced vowel segment and a voiceless consonantal segment), or certain syllable structure constraints (where segmental patterning in terms of consonantal and vocalic segments is established). We do not intend to treat the psychological aspect in this paper.

2 citations