The Timing of Language Change

Ogura, Mieko

doi:10.1002/9781118257227.ch23

Cited by 4 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…As a result, the gradualness of the changes can only be inferred. Ogura (2012) also suggests that changes may behave differently depending on whether they are driven by perceptual, rather than productive forces. She claims that, while high frequency words generally lead change, low frequency forms can dominate perceptually driven change because: ''perceptually or cognitively unfavourable forms can be learned and maintained in their unfavourable forms if they are high frequency in the input'' (Ogura, 2012, p.438).…”

Section: Lexical Frequency and Regular Sound Changementioning

confidence: 94%

Tracking word frequency effects through 130 years of sound change

et al. 2015

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Contemporary New Zealand English has distinctive pronunciations of three characteristic vowels. Did the evolution of these distinctive pronunciations occur in all words at the same time or were different words affected differently? We analyze the changing pronunciation of New Zealand English in a large set of recordings of speakers born over a 130 year period. We show that low frequency words were at the forefront of these changes and higher frequency words lagged behind. A long-standing debate exists between authors claiming that high frequency words lead regular sound change and others claiming that there are no frequency effects. The leading role of low frequency words is surprising in this context. It can be elucidated in models of lexical processing that include detailed word-specific memories.

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Section: Lexical Frequency and Regular Sound Changementioning

confidence: 94%

Tracking word frequency effects through 130 years of sound change

et al. 2015

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“…A further dimension of debate is that some scholars claim that different sound changes are led by words of different frequencies. Phillips (1984Phillips ( , 2001Phillips ( , 2006 states that the most frequent words lead sound changes motivated by physiological factors, such as vowel reduction, deletion, assimilation, etc., while the least frequent words lead sound changes that arise from phonological segmental and sequential constraints of the language, such as unrounding in Middle English, diatone formation in Modern English, and others (see also Ogura, 2012). Fruehwald et al (2013) express their doubt concerning the role of frequency in sound change.…”

Section: Early Application Vs Late Applicationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exceptions vs. Non-exceptions in Sound Changes: Morphological Condition and Frequency

2022

ALA

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This paper takes an approach different from most previous studies by firstly comparing exceptions with non-exceptions in the diphthongization of [i] to [ei] in Mandarin (AD 1324–Present) to locate factors that explain exceptions. Then it focuses solely on non-exceptional morphemes in this process by comparing morphemes at the forefront of this process with those undergoing it later to examine factors to explain morphemes leading this sound change. Statistical analysis shows that morphemes with the highest frequency among all related morphemes tend to be exceptions to diphthongization of [i] to [ei], and morphemes with high frequency among those non-exceptional morphemes tend to undergo this process earlier. In addition, the factor of frequency change, a proposal of this paper, is statistically significantly correlated with morphemes that lead diphthongization. The morphological condition has been rejected as statistically significant both for explaining exceptions to sound change and leading morphemes in sound change.

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“…When frequent words lead in a sound change (particularly in the case of lenition), the effect of word frequency is small at the earliest stages of the change and increases as the change progresses more quickly (Hay & Foulkes, 2016). Phonetically gradual sound changes that involve complex structural changes (Phillips, 2006) or are driven by perceptual, rather than articulatory, forces may also show an advantage to low-frequency words over high-frequency ones (Ogura, 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sociophonetic Variation and Change in Heritage Languages: Lexical Effects in Heritage Italian Aspiration of Voiceless Stops

Celata

Nagy

2022

Lang Speech

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In a previous study on voiceless stop aspiration in Heritage Calabrian Italian spoken in Toronto, we found that the transmission of a sociophonetic variable differed from cross-generational phonetic variation induced by increased contact with the majority language. Universal phonetic factors and the social characteristics of the speakers appeared to influence contact-induced variation much more straightforwardly than the transmission of the sociophonetic variable. In the current study, we investigate further, examining possible alternative explanations related to the lexical distribution of the aspiration phenomena. We test two alternative hypotheses, the first one predicting that the diffusion of a majority language’s phonetic feature is frequency-driven while change in a sociophonetic feature is not (or not that regularly across generations), and the second one predicting that sociophonetic aspiration decreases across generations by being progressively more dependent on the frequency of lexical items. Our results show that sociophonetic aspiration resists lexicalization and applies to both frequent and infrequent words even in the speech of third-generation speakers. By contrast, the progressive introduction of contact-induced phonetic change is led by high-frequency words. These findings add to the complexity of heritage language phonology by suggesting that the pronunciation features of a heritage language can follow different fates depending on their sociolinguistic roles.

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The Timing of Language Change

Cited by 4 publications

References 27 publications

Tracking word frequency effects through 130 years of sound change

Tracking word frequency effects through 130 years of sound change

Exceptions vs. Non-exceptions in Sound Changes: Morphological Condition and Frequency

Sociophonetic Variation and Change in Heritage Languages: Lexical Effects in Heritage Italian Aspiration of Voiceless Stops

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