2006/11/15

Bybee, J. (2002). Word frequency and context of use in the lexical diffusion of phonetically conditioned sound change. Language Variation and Change, 14, 261–290.

Presentation: Renee
Summary: Sally

In the beginning, the author reviewed the literature on how frequency affects lexical diffusion. Two types of sound change are proposed by Labov (1981, 1994): “regular sound change”, which is phonetically motivated and gradual, and “lexical diffusion”, which is usually abrupt. On the other hand, Hooper (1976) mentioned a diffusion paradox by separating reductive sound change from analytical ones based on whether high or low frequency words are firstly affected in sound change. In the second part of this study, the author proposed an alternate exemplar model. Based on the prediction of this model, the word frequency will affect the speed of sound change. This prediction was then tested on the /t,d/ deletion of American English on data from different corpora. Lastly, bound morphemes were also investigated for their possible effects on the diffusion of a sound change.