total deletion

[Grace-Ellen]

as we know, there's "deletion rule" in phonology.could someone list some different types of deletion in English or cite examples of "total deletion"?thank you!

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by Grace-Ellen

as we know, there's "deletion rule" in phonology.could someone list some different types of deletion in English or cite examples of "total deletion"?thank you!

I'm not sure that a "deletion rule" in phonology would be well-known here. It could mean quite a few things:
It is -> It's
want to -> wanna
That is my bike -> That my bike. (in African American Vernacular E).
What is the "deletion rule" as you understand it? And what do you call a "total deletion"?

[Grace-Ellen]

in my book, deletion rule means deleting the sound ,although it's orthographically represented.for example,sign and signature ,g in the former is muted while in the latter it's pronounced.Then the text asks me to cite examples of total deletion, about which i'm really confused.

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by Raymott

I'm not sure that a "deletion rule" in phonology would be well-known here.

Or do you mean deletions that don't show up in spelling? That is, purely phonological deletions, such as:
postman -> / poʊsmən /
sixths -> / sɪkθs/ or /sɪks:/

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by Grace-Ellen

in my book, deletion rule means deleting the sound ,although it's orthographically represented.for example,sign and signature ,g in the former is muted while in the latter it's pronounced.Then the text asks me to cite examples of total deletion, about which i'm really confused.

OK, well my second post was what you wanted. Note that this is a totally natural deletion which occurs because phonetically difficult sequences of sounds coincide. So people don't learn them, and ESL students definitely should not try to learn them.
Repetitions are often elided in English (as opposed to Italian, for example):
fish shop -> /fi shop/
Some vowels are dropped: mystery, general -> mistry, genral
Difficult consonant clusters: pumpkin -> pumkin.
I'll have to think more about "total deletions".

[Tdol]

Would the glottal stop in Cockney pronunciation of 'bottle' count?

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by Tdol

Would the glottal stop in Cockney pronunciation of 'bottle' count?

I'm not sure. That seems to be more a substitution of [ʔ] for [t].
I've decided that if Grace-Ellen's teacher or grammar book has asked for a "total deletion" it's up to them to define first what they mean.

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by Raymott

I'm not sure.

I've done a bit more reading on total deletion in phonology. (Most examples are from obscure African languages, so I won't bother posting them).
Suffice to say that your original "sign" has a total phonological deletion of the "g", and the absence of the second "p" in /pumkin/ is a total deletion.
It appears that near-total or non-total deletions are written about more often in respect of vowels, where one vowel can merge into a diphthong, or there can be a partial deletion of a vowel when two or three vowels follow one another.