Evolutionary Phonology

Evolutionary Phonology PDF Author: Juliette Blevins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139451464
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 388

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Book Description
Evolutionary Phonology is a theory of sound patterns which synthesizes results in historical linguistics, phonetics and phonological theory. In this book, Juliette Blevins explores the nature of sounds patterns and sound change in human language over the past 7000–8000 years, the time depth for which the comparative method is reasonably reliable. This book presents an approach to the problem of how genetically unrelated languages, from families as far apart as Native American, Australian Aboriginal, Austronesian and Indo-European, can often show similar sound patterns, and also tackles the converse problem of why there are notable exceptions to most of the patterns that are often regarded as universal tendencies or constraints. It argues that in both cases, a formal model of sound change that integrates phonetic variation and patterns of misperception can account for attested sound systems without reference to markedness or naturalness within the synchronic grammar.

Evolutionary Phonology

Evolutionary Phonology PDF Author: Juliette Blevins
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139451464
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 388

Get Book Here

Book Description
Evolutionary Phonology is a theory of sound patterns which synthesizes results in historical linguistics, phonetics and phonological theory. In this book, Juliette Blevins explores the nature of sounds patterns and sound change in human language over the past 7000–8000 years, the time depth for which the comparative method is reasonably reliable. This book presents an approach to the problem of how genetically unrelated languages, from families as far apart as Native American, Australian Aboriginal, Austronesian and Indo-European, can often show similar sound patterns, and also tackles the converse problem of why there are notable exceptions to most of the patterns that are often regarded as universal tendencies or constraints. It argues that in both cases, a formal model of sound change that integrates phonetic variation and patterns of misperception can account for attested sound systems without reference to markedness or naturalness within the synchronic grammar.

The Emergence of Phonology

The Emergence of Phonology PDF Author: Marilyn M. Vihman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107433711
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
How well have classic ideas on whole-word phonology stood the test of time? Waterson claimed that each child has a system of their own; Ferguson and Farwell emphasized the relative accuracy of first words; Menn noted the occurrence of regression and the emergence of phonological systematicity. This volume brings together classic texts such as these with current data-rich studies of British and American English, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish, French, Japanese, Polish and Spanish. This combination of classic and contemporary work from the last thirty years presents the reader with cutting-edge perspectives on child language by linking historical approaches with current ideas such as exemplar theory and usage-based phonology, and contrasting state-of-the-art perspectives from developmental psychology and linguistics. This is a valuable resource for cognitive scientists, developmentalists, linguists, psychologists, speech scientists and therapists interested in understanding how children begin to use language without the benefit of language-specific innate knowledge.

An Emergence Approach to Speech Acquisition

An Emergence Approach to Speech Acquisition PDF Author: Barbara L. Davis
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 1135067783
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 233

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Book Description
The central assertion in this volume is that the young child uses general skills, scaffolded by adults, to acquire the complex knowledge of sound patterns and the goal-directed behaviors for communicating ideas through language and producing speech. A child’s acquisition of phonology is seen as a product of her physical and social interaction capacities supported by input from adult models about ambient language sound patterns. Acquisition of phonological knowledge and behavior is a product of this function-oriented complex system. No pre-existing mental knowledge base is necessary for acquiring phonology in this view. Importantly, the child’s diverse abilities are used for many other functions as well as phonological acquisition. Throughout, an evaluation is made of the research on patterns of typical development across languages in monolingual and bilingual children and children with speech impairments affecting various aspects of their developing complex system. Also considered is the status of available theoretical perspectives on phonological acquisition relative to an emergence proposal, and contributions that this perspective could make to more comprehensive modeling of the nature of phonological acquisition are proposed. The volume will be of interest to cognitive psychologists, linguistics, and speech pathologists.

The Emergence of Distinctive Features

The Emergence of Distinctive Features PDF Author: Jeff Mielke
Publisher: Oxford Studies in Typology and
ISBN:
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 308

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Book Description
This book makes a fundamental contribution to phonology, linguistic typology, and the nature of the human language faculty. Distinctive features in phonology distinguish one meaningful sound from another. Since the mid-twentieth century they have been seen as a set characterizing all possible phonological distinctions and as an integral part of Universal Grammar, the innate language faculty underlying successive versions of Chomskyan generative theory. The usefulness of distinctive features in phonological analysis is uncontroversial, but the supposition that features are innate and universal rather than learned and language-specific has never, until now, been systematically tested. In his pioneering account Jeff Mielke presents the results of a crosslinguistic survey of natural classes of distinctive features covering almost six hundred of the world's languages drawn from a variety of different families. He shows that no theory is able to characterize more than 71 percent of classes, and further that current theories, deployed either singly or collectively, do not predict the range of classes that occur and recur. He reveals the existence of apparently unnatural classes in many languages. Even without these findings, he argues, there are reasons to doubt whether distinctive features are innate: for example, distinctive features used in signed languages are different from those in spoken languages, even though deafness is generally not hereditary. The author explains the grouping of sounds into classes and concludes by offering a unified account of what previously have been considered to be natural and unnatural classes. The data on which the analysis is based are freely available in a program downloadable from the publisher's web site.

Emergent phonology

Emergent phonology PDF Author: Diana Archangeli
Publisher: Language Science Press
ISBN: 3961103356
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 207

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Book Description
To what extent do complex phonological patterns require the postulation of universal mechanisms specific to language? In this volume, we explore the Emergent Hypothesis, that the innate language-specific faculty driving the shape of adult grammars is minimal, with grammar development relying instead on cognitive capacities of a general nature. Generalisations about sounds, and about the way sounds are organised into meaningful units, are constructed in a bottom-up fashion: As such, phonology is emergent. We present arguments for considering the Emergent Hypothesis, both conceptually and by working through an extended example in order to demonstrate how an adult grammar might emerge from the input encountered by a learner. Developing a concrete, data-driven approach, we argue that the conventional, abstract notion of unique underlying representations is unmotivated; such underlying representations would require some innate principle to ensure their postulation by a learner. We review the history of the concept and show that such postulated forms result in undesirable phonological consequences. We work through several case studies to illustrate how various types of phonological patterns might be accounted for in the proposed framework. The case studies illustrate patterns of allophony, of productive and unproductive patterns of alternation, and cases where the surface manifestation of a feature does not seem to correspond to its morphological source. We consider cases where a phonetic distinction that is binary seems to manifest itself in a way that is morphologically ternary, and we consider cases where underlying representations of considerable abstractness have been posited in previous frameworks. We also consider cases of opacity, where observed phonological properties do not neatly map onto the phonological generalisations governing patterns of alternation.

The Emergence of Phonology

The Emergence of Phonology PDF Author: Marilyn M. Vihman
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 0521762340
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 531

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Book Description
How well have classic ideas on whole-word phonology stood the test of time? Waterson claimed that each child has a system of their own; Ferguson and Farwell emphasised the relative accuracy of first words; Menn noted the occurrence of regression and the emergence of phonological systematicity. This volume brings together classic texts such as these with current data-rich studies of British and American English, Arabic, Brazilian Portuguese, Finnish, French, Japanese, Polish and Spanish. This combination of classic and contemporary work from the last 30 years presents the reader with cutting-edge perspectives on child language by linking historical approaches with current ideas such as exemplar theory and usage-based phonology and contrasting state-of-the-art perspectives from developmental psychology and linguistics. This is a valuable resource for cognitive scientists, developmentalists, linguists, psychologists, speech scientists and therapists interested in understanding how children begin to use language without the benefit of language-specific innate knowledge.

Phonological Development

Phonological Development PDF Author: Marilyn May Vihman
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 9781118342800
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Drawing on major research developments in the field, Vihman has updated and extensively revised the 1996 edition of her classic text to provide a thorough and stimulating overview of current studies of child production and perception and early word learning. Offers a full survey of the thinking on how babies develop phonological knowledge Provides a much needed update on the field – one in which this book remains unique, and in which there have also been dramatic developments since the publication of the first edition Surveys what has been learned about phonological development and raises questions for further study The only book that includes balanced treatment of research in perception and production and attempts a synthesis of these fields, which have generally developed in isolation from one another Includes a new chapter providing an overview of communicative and attentional development, as well as perceptual and vocal development, in the first 18 months, with additional focus on both implicit and explicit learning mechanisms

Sign Language Phonology

Sign Language Phonology PDF Author: Diane Brentari
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107113474
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Surveys key findings and ideas in sign language phonology, exploring the crucial areas in phonology to which sign language studies has contributed.

The Emergence of Grammars

The Emergence of Grammars PDF Author: Michela Russo
Publisher: Nova Science Publishers
ISBN: 9781685070229
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 456

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Book Description
"What is a grammar? What types of grammar are possible in natural languages? Why and to what extent do grammatical properties vary from one language to another? This book gathers ten original contributions on the phonology and morphosyntax of various languages, which, from several complementary angles, contribute to the general debate on the genesis and structure of grammars. Their common thread is the logical relationship between general theory and particular grammar(s). Basing their reflections on the careful study of various empirical materials (from Lithuanian, Gothic, Sanskrit, Nakanai, Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian, Finnic languages, Atlantic Languages, Proto-Western Arabic and Maltese, to Occitan, Medieval French, Medieval and Modern Italo-Romance), the general and common angle to these contributions is to describe and model variation in grammar. The contributions help to show how grammar is structured at different levels of linguistic analysis and how syntactic, morphological and phonological theories are mutually enriched by work carried out at their interface. The book, which combines theoretical linguistics with a great concern for detailed description, is intended for all general linguists interested in phonology, morphology, syntax and typological variation"--

The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution

The Oxford Handbook of Language Evolution PDF Author: Maggie Tallerman
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199541116
Category : Language Arts & Disciplines
Languages : en
Pages : 790

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Book Description
Leading scholars present critical accounts of every aspect of the field, including work in animal behaviour; anatomy, genetics and neurology; the prehistory of language; the development of our uniquely linguistic species; and language creation, transmission, and change.