Minimal changes and domino effects in phonological representations

In many different areas of phonological research, we observe the phenomenon of liquids (/l,r/) changing into glides (/j,w/). An example of such a change can be found in data of first language acquisition in which the target word broek ’trousers’ may be realized as [bwuk] or [bjuk] by a two-year-old child (source: Van Zonneveld 1988). We can obtain similar data, however, from the investigation of disordered speech and language: plons ’splash’ realized as [pjons] (source: Melissen 1992), historical language change: olt ’old’ changed into oud [owt] (source: Schönfeld 1970), etc. We assume that this widely attested natural process must be accounted for by a simple operation within a phonological theory/model, as it is generally accepted that natural processes must be far less complex to state than unnatural ones (cf. McCarthy 1988). For example, a very common process, such as final devoicing, can be accounted for by a simple rule/operation within phonological theories, only concerning the change of value of one feature. On the other hand, a rare process, such as metathesis, involves a sequence of radical changes within the phonological model. Unfortunately, however, the account of the aforementioned widely attested liquid-glide alternation does involve an elementary operation neither in most of the elder, nor in most of the recently proposed phonological theories. In section 2 of this paper, we will outline the relation between the commonness of a phonological process in general and the complexity of its account within the phonological theory of Chomsky and Halle (1968) (henceforth: SPE) and Feature Geometry (Clements 1985, Sagey 1986, McCarthy 1988) (henceforth: FG). Successively, we will pay attention to final devoicing and metathesis phenomena. Furthermore, we will show that the complex account of liquid-glide processes is exceptional in this respect. In section 3, we will introduce an incorporation of the syllable model of Cairns and Feinstein (1982) into the Phonological Networks model of Gilbers (1992) in order to account for liquidglide alternations as a minimal change within the theory.