2. Frequency biases. A sound that is present in many different syllables, such as initial /t/, has many more connections from its node to syllable nodes than one that occurs in few syllables, such as initial /f/. The number of these connections to a sound (its syllabic frequency) has consequences for its activation level. As activation spreads upward from sound to syllables and back again, frequent sounds get more activation from activated syllables than do infrequent sounds. This creates a bias such that frequent sounds tend to replace infrequent ones more than the other way around.
- Dell (2004), a pag.160