ABSTRACT
Zhu & Dodd (2000) proposed a concept of phonological saliency in their explanation of the order of acquisition of different syllable components by Putonghua-speaking children. Phonological saliency is a syllable-based, language-specific concept. It is affected by a combination of several factors, including the status of the component in the syllable structure (a compulsory component is more salient than an optional one), the capacity of a component in differentiating lexical meaning of a syllable (a component which is more capable of distinguishing lexical information is more salient than one which carries less lexical information), and the number of permissible choices within a component in the syllable structure (the more permissible choices a component has, the less salient it is).
