CHAPTER V CONCLUSIONS AND SUGGESTIONS
This chapter consists of two sections. They are conclusion and suggestion. The first section notes some conclusions drawn from the discussions and findings
in the previous chapter. The second section presents some suggestions regarding the subject matter to the English teachers and future researchers.
A. Conclusions
This research studies stop deletion in orthographical consonant clusters of English words. All in all, there are 581 words containing stop deletion examined
for data analysis. From the highest to the lowest frequency, they are 136 words of g-deletion, 116 words of p-deletion, 112 words of b-deletion, 99 words of k-
deletion, 86 words of t-deletion, 16 words of d-deletion, 9 words of n-deletion, and 2 words of m-deletion.
In this study, the data were collected from dictionary analysis. To be more precise, they were taken from Longman Pronunciation Dictionary LPD, second
edition, by JC Wells, published in 2000. Specifically, this study is classified as a phonological study. That is, it is a study focuses on the phonological main points
of reviewing the occurrence of stop deletion that takes place in English words. Besides, this research attempts to seek the non-phonological factors that also
contribute to the occurrence of stop deletion in English. That is, it analyzes the phonological data in terms of sounds then it observes its relation to the spelling
orthography to obtain the historical explanation related to the phenomenon of deletion that occurs in English.
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In accordance with research objectives presented in Chapter I, this study attempts to answer three research questions. They are 1 What types of stop
deletion are found in English? 2 What are the phonological rules of stop deletion in English words? and 3 What non-phonological factors might affect the
occurrence of stop deletion in English? In reference to these questions, the answer to each problem can be divided into three parts. The first part presents types of
stop deletion found in English, the second section discusses phonological rules of stop deletion in English and the third part reviews the points of historical accounts
and the economical factors that can be accounted for the occurrence of stop deletion in English.
The first problem resulted in findings of three types of deletion in English words. They are permanent deletion, non-permanent deletion, and variety-
dependent deletion. In this study, the deletions found are 485 words of permanent deletion, 61 words of non-permanent deletion, and 37 words of variety-dependent
deletion. In this case, the classifications were made regarding the condition for each deletion. Permanent deletion is classified based on the deletion that occurs
permanently in any English word. That is, from the same root, the deletion is still applied for the other derived-words. Meanwhile, non-permanent deletion is
determined by the deletion in which the stop may still exist not deleted for some other derived words. And the last, the variety-dependent deletion is categorized by
counting on two factors. First is the case of casual speech and second is the case of regional variation. In this sense, deletion may or may not appear depending
primarily on the variation in certain regional area.
The second problem resulted in thirteen phonological rules on stop deletion. They were b deletion two rules, d-deletion two rules, g-deletion two
rules, p-deletion two rules, t-deletion two rules, k-deletion one rule, m- deletion one rule, and n deletion one rule. According to the environment of the
phonological rules, they can be compressed into seven basic rules. They are listed as below.
1. The deletion of voiced stops [b] or [n] that is preceded by bilabial nasal stop
[m] at the end of the word or at a morpheme boundary. The phonological rule can be formed as follows.
[b] → Ø [m] __
2. The deletion of voiced stop [b] or [d] and voiceless stops [p] that is followed
by voiceless alveolar stop [t] in the beginning of a word or at the end of a word, or at a syllable or morpheme boundary. The phonological rule can be
formulated as below.
→ Ø __ [t]
3. The deletion of voiced velar stop [g] that is followed by bilabial nasal stop [m],
lateral [l], and glottal fricative [h] at the beginning or a word, or at the end of a word or at syllable boundary. The rule can be presented as follows.
[g] → Ø __
4. The deletion of voiced stop [d], [g], or [m] or voiceless stop [p] or [k] that is
followed by alveolar nasal stop [n] at the beginning of a word, a syllable boundary, or a morpheme boundary. The phonological rule can be stated as
below.
→ Ø __ [n]
5. The deletion of voiceless bilabial stop [p] that is followed by voiceless fricative
[f] or [s] in the beginning of a word. The rule can be formed as follows.
[p] → Ø __
6. The deletion of bilabial stop [p] that is preceded by bilabial nasal stop [m] and
followed by voiced stop [b] or [d] in the initial syllable. The formulation can be stated as below.
[p] → Ø [m] __
7. The deletion of voiceless alveolar stop [t] that is preceded by voiceless alveolar
fricative [s] and followed by lateral [l] or schwa [ ən] at the syllable boundary.
The rules can be formed as follows.
[t] → Ø [s] __
Then, the third problem resulted in two non-phonological factors might affect the occurrence of stop deletion in English. They are the historical factor and
the economical factor. Based on the first factor on the historical review, it can be restated that there were some factors that influence the occurrence of permanent
deletion. They were the influence of different source of languages with different spelling and pronunciation, the effort to establish a more standardized
orthography, word borrowing, sound change, and the adjustment to the pronunciation to make it fit into English. These occurrences apparently affected
English in terms of its written and spoken form. There were some words in which the spellings were modified but the pronunciations were retained, or the spellings
were retained but the pronunciations were changed. There might be also the happening where the spelling and the pronunciation were adapted into English or
they just remained as they were. As a consequence, there were some words that undertook deletion and some that did not. Meanwhile, on the second factor, that is
the economical factor, it can be stated that the deletion might well occur because of the factor of economy efficiency. That is, it was done for the ease of
pronunciation and to make the pronunciation become more saving. Practically, it was difficult to pronounce the clusters then the deletion was applied to overcome
that trouble in practice. Otherwise, the clusters did not exist in English cluster so they were simply deleted. All in all, there are at least three points of view that can
be taken for granted deals with the occurrence of deletion in English. They are the phonological factor, the historical factor, and the economical factor.
B. Suggestions
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