Tgis presentation is about the notion of naturalness in phonology. It presents several definition and models of the naturalness and natural classes.

1. Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah
University
Faculty of Arts and Human
Sciences
Dhar Mehraz, Fez
Applied Language
Studies and Research
in Higher Education
Master Program
Naturalness and Natural Classes
Academic Year: 2014/2015
Presented by:
Mohamed Benhima
El Ourf Mounir
Supervised by:
Dr. Souad
Slaoui

2. Introduction……………………………………………………………………...
1. Naturalness
2. Naturalness
A. Definitions
a. Naturalness
b. Natural generative phonology
c. Natural phonology
3. Natural processes
2. NP framework
A. Natural classes
B. Natural segments
C. Natural processes and context
3. Phonological strength hierarchies
Conclusion ……………………………………………........................................

3. Natural :
• Reasonable or expected in a particular
situation (Macmillan English Dictionary)
• “to be expected”, “frequently” found across
languages”.
In phonology :
• The probability that particular sounds, classes
of sounds, or phonological rules occur in any
language
(Richards and Schmidt, 2010).

4. • Any sequence of adjacent consonants,
especially those occurring initially or finally in a
syllable, such as the initial [br-] of bread, or the final
[-st] of best.
• Not all possible combinations of consonants occur
in a language.

5. • A model of phonology which requires that
phonological rules and representations bear a direct
relation to surface linguistic forms (Crystal, 2008).
• Phonological representation are simply depicted as
linear arrangement (linear phonology) where
phonological rules operate on such strings (they delete,
insert, or permute segments, or change their feature
values).

6. • A theory of phonology developed by David Stampe
and others in the 1970s. NP makes ‘rule
naturalness’ its prime theoretical consideration,
distinguishing between natural processes and
learned processes (Trask, 1996).

7. A system of subconscious mental
processes
voicing
tense
lenition
fortition devoicin
g
lax nasalisatio
n
assimilati
on
patalisation

8. • A phonological process is a mental operation that
applies in speech to substitute, for a class of
sounds or sound sequences presenting a specific
common difficulty to the speech capacity of the
individual, an alternative class identical but lacking
the difficult property
• a set of universal, obligatory, inviolable processes
which govern the phonology of a language. They
are said to be ‘natural’ because they are
phonetically plausible, as evidenced by their
tendency to appear similarly in a wide range of
languages (Crystal, 2008).

9. • universal processes of phonology that are
motivated by:
 the physiology of the speech organs .
 the acoustic characteristics of speech sounds.

10. Language specific phonological process which can in no
way be regarded as natural, but which must be simply
stipulated by the analyst and learned by the child (Trask,
1996).
The central idea is that a child is born with a set of
universal natural processes, and that learning an additional
language consists partly of unlearning these innate
processes as required and partly of acquiring the
idiosyncratic and largely unnatural rules peculiar to
the language being learned.
Physiologic
al
constraints

12. Natural Segments
Natural Classes
Natural Processes
NATURAL SEGMENTS, NATURAL
CLASSES AND NATURAL
PROCESSES

13. NATURAL SEGMENTS
•Indvidual segments contain
natural features:
•The combination of labial and
uvular is unnatural for the simple
reason that the lips cannot touch
the uvula

14. •The features that recur again and again
are said to be unmarked or natural. The
examples below are infrequent in
English, hence unnatural.
Voiceless sonorants
Voceless approximants
Velaric airstream
Front rounded vowels
Nasalized vowels

15. •Natural Classes:
• Two or more segments are said to constitute a
natural class if fewer features are required to
specify the class than to specify any one member
of the class. For example, The class of voiceless
stop /p,t,k/ constitutes a natural class because
fewer features (three features [–voice, –cont, –
del rel) are required to specify the class than to
specify each member of the class (five to four) as
can be seen in the graph below:

16. Figure1: Hyman ( 1995: 139)

17. • Criteria to categorize segments into natural
classes:
the two segments undergo phonological rules
together;
the two segments function together in the
environment of phonological rules;
one segment is converted into the other
segment by a phonological rule;
one segment is derived in the environment of
the other segments as in assimilation.

18. •Natural Processes:
•The context plays a pivotal role in the operation
of phonological processes. Different
phonological processes are determined by the
context wherein they occur. For example,
palatalization occurs in the context of front
vowels [ki]. Labialization occurs in the context
of labial vowels [kɔ]. Nasalization occurs in the
context of nasal sounds [ɔn]. Voicing occurs in
the context of voiced sounds. All these
processes are less natural because they occur
in restricted contexts. It is the phonological
environment that determines the phonological
process in the aformentioned examples.

19. Strength Hierarchies:
• Strength hierarchies are used to represent phonological processes
• Figure 2: strength hierarchy based on the parameter of manner of
articulation 1st version (Katamba: 104)
• N.B: movement from the left to the right ( > ) illustrates the direction of
weakening (or lenition).

20. Figure 3: Sonority Hierarchy (ibid:104)

21. Fig5: Strength hierarchy with the parameters of
sonority and manner of articulation

22. Fig6: Strength hierarchy with the parameters of
sonority, place of articulation and gemination
• Notice that geminate segements occupy the
strongest place of the strength hierarchy.

23. •Conclusion:
• Natural Phonology as theory developed by
Stampe (1970) came as a reaction to
Generative Phonology developed by Chomsky
and Halle (1965). According to natural
phonology, language consists, for the most
part, of natural segments, natural classes, and
natural processes. The latter are distinguished
from rules by virtue of the fact that they are not
conventional. Natural processes can be
represented in terms of strengthening (fortition)
or weakening (lenition) along a strength
hierarchy.

24. • Refernces
• Crystal , D.(2008). Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics.
• Fromkin V., Roodman R., and Hyams N.. (2003). An Introduction to Language
(seventh edition). Tomson Corporation, Wadsworth, Massachusetts
(consulted but not cited)
• Hyman, L. M. (1975). Phonology: Theory and Analysis. Washington,
D.C: Holt, Rinehart and Winston.
• Katamba, F. (1989). An Introduction to Phonology. London: Longmans
• Lass, R. (1984). Phonology an Introduction to Basic Concepts. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
• Oxford Advanced Learner Dictionary© Oxford University Press, 2010
• Richards, J., and Schmidt, R. (2010). Longman Dictionary of Language
Teaching and Applied Linguistics (4 ed.).
• Stampe, D. (1979). A Dissertation on Natural Phonology.
• Trask, R. L. (1996).Dictionary of Phonetics and Phonology.
• Yule G.. (2010). The Study of Language (fourth editions). Cambridge
University Press, New York. (consulted but not cited)

25. 2014/2015