Are homonyms in consonant cluster productions caused by articulatory or perceptual processes? A discussion based on one child’s development

The child’s path towards an ability to produce initial consonant clusters has previously been described as involving, perhaps optional, stages of application of the processes ‘cluster simplification’ and ‘cluster reduction’ (for instance Grunwell, 1987). The process of ‘cluster simplification’ is described as a deletion of all but one members of the cluster, resulting in a unbranched syllable onset. In this stage of development, the child’s production of the target word [sto:] would be transcribed as [to:]. At other, usually later, stages of development, applications of the phonological process of ‘cluster simplification’ changes the child’s output form of the cluster, perceived by the adult transcriber, is the voiced cognate of the plosive. E.g. [sto:] would in this stage be produced as [do:]. In both instanced, the output form of the child is often perceived and transcribed by the adult observer as homonyms of the child’s output form when the target word does have an unbranched syllable onset with either a voiced or a voiceless plosive in initial position. It is, however, unclear whether the productions were intended to be homonyms due to an identical underlying representation in the child, or whether the child simply fails to make a distinction in the two output forms that are strong enough for it to be perceived by an adult observer. In order to investigate this, the established acoustic cues of the phonological feature differentiating between the child’s output form and the adult output form will have to be investigated in order to determine the which level of processes are involved at various stages in development. In the case of consonant cluster reduction and simplification, the primary candidate for this difference is the voicing contrast. Therefore, the utilisation of the acoustic cues to this contrast may be studied in order to gain insight into the reasons behind the homonyms produced.