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This type of exercise involving minimal sets also allows us to see that there are
definite patterns in the types of sound combinations permitted in a language. In
English, the minimal set we have just listed does not include forms such as lig
or vig. According to the dictionary, these are not English words, but they could
be viewed as possible English words. That is, our phonological knowledge of

the pattern of sounds in English words would allow us to treat these forms as
acceptable if, at some future time, they came into use. They might, for example,
begin as invented abbreviations (I think Bubba is one very ignorant guy.∼Yeah,
he’s a big vig). Until then, they represent ‘accidental’ gaps in the vocabulary of
English.
It is, however, no accident that forms such as [fsg] or [rng] do not exist or are
unlikely ever to exist. They have been formed without obeying some constraints
on the sequence or position of English phonemes. Such constraints are called
the phonotactics (i.e. permitted arrangements of sounds) in a language and
are obviously part of every speaker’s phonological knowledge. Because these
constraints operate on a unit that is larger than the single segment or phoneme,
we have to move on to a consideration of the basic structure of that larger
phonological unit called the syllable.