Reflections on a double negative: misarticulation and inconsistency

The results of recent work on the so-called inconsistency of misarticulations of certain speech sounds are examined in terms of previous knowledge available to speech pathologists and of some of the contributions attributable to more recent procedures and points of view. It is concluded that some current descriptions of articulation which are concerned primarily with physiological constraints can mislead clinicians, and that maximally useful descriptions of the influences operating on the production of speech sounds must include linguistic constraints as well.