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Acquisition and Evolution of Phonological Systems| old_uid | 446 |
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| title | Acquisition and Evolution of Phonological Systems |
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| start_date | 2006/01/10 |
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| schedule | 10h-12h |
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| online | no |
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| summary | In the late 19th century, the Neogrammarians thought that a sound change affect all lexical items simultaneously when their phonetic environments are the same (e.g. Osthoff and Brugmann, 1878). On the contrary, in the late 60s, Wang proposed that sound change is initiated by a single word or a small group of words and then spreads to the other words with a similar phonological environment, namely lexical diffusion (1969), based on the observation that different sound changes can happen even if the phonological conditions are similar for the words or morphemes. The issue is still controversial because various empirical studies provide evidence for both hypotheses (see Labov, 1994).
A dynamic computational model linking up the cognitive-developmental properties of the human beings (“local” mechanisms) and the transition patterns of sound changes (“global” phenomena) was built, in order to seek for possible solutions to resolve the preceding controversial issue. In the simulation results of the model, two opposing transition patterns can be found under different conditions. During a shift without fusion of sounds, the pronunciations of the lexical items change regularly as described in the Neogrammarian hypothesis; during a merger, the spoken forms display at the beginning a regular pattern as in a shift. Then the changing pattern becomes irregular lexically as described in lexical diffusion when the two perceptual categories are fusing together. These conditions are primarily matched with the empirical data reported in the literature. Besides, the simulation results also support the existence of another controversial phenomenon, near-merger (Labov, 1994): individual speakers in the population cannot perceptually distinguish two sounds but can produce them differently.
References:
Labov, W. (1994), Principles of Linguistic Change, vol. 1: Internal Factors. Oxford: Blackwell.
Osthoff, H. and Brugmann, K. (1878), Morphologische Untersuchungen auf dem Gebiete der indo-germanischen Sprachen, Vorwort I. iii-xx. (English Translation in Lehmann 1967)
Wang, W. S-Y. (1969), Competing Changes as a Cause of Residue. Language. 45:9-25. |
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| responsibles | Coupé |
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