The phonological status of English oral stops after tautosyllabic /s/: evidence from speakers ’ classificatory behaviour1

Abstract: The classification of oral stops after tautosyllabic /s / in English is an old phonological problem to which different solutions have been proposed. In an attempt to provide experimental evidence on the classification of oral bilabial stops after tautosyllabic /s / by native speakers of English, a concept formation experiment was conducted. The results showed that out of the four main phonological theoretical views on the classification of oral stops after tautosyllabic /s/, the solution which treats those speech segments as allophones of the phonemes /p, t, k/ is the most plausible from the point of view of language users ’ classificatory behaviour