Stages and units in output processing: Some evidence from voicing and fronting processes in children

Two experiments were carried out to investigate the stage of processing at which certain “phonological processes” occur in children with developmental phonological disorder. Experiment 1, which investigated the role of certain factors in the process of voicing, revealed that stress and position within the word affected the voicing of stops, but word boundaries did not. Experiment 2 investigated the categorization and production of velar targets in words and non-words by children who front velars. These children showed a difference between categorization and production, but not between words and non-words. Together with the earlier finding that velar fronting may be affected by word boundaries (Chiat, 1983). these results suggest that fronting is not lexically specified, but occurs in the articulatory planning of word-size units, while voicing occurs at a later stage of execution. Further questions about the stages and structures involved in output processing are posed in the light of these findings.