Year: 2011
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: In phonology, it has often been noted that some regularities are typologically more frequent than others. For example, alternations that change [i] to [u] occur more often than alternations that change [i] into [i] (Chomsky and Halle, 1968). In order to explain such typological asymmetries, many phonological theories refer to their phonetic bases: Typologically frequent regularities tend to ‘make sense’ from a phonetic point of view (e.g. Donegan et al., 1979; Archangeli and Pulleybank, 1994). Two proposals as to how phonetic naturalness gives rise to typological asymmetries are the following. First, cognitive biases have been argued to play a role during phonological acquisition in each individual language learner; these biases typically favor the acquisition of phonetically natural regularities (e.g. Jusczyk, 1998; Wilson, 2006). Second, sound changes that take place over generations of speakers have been argued to yield more phonetically natural regularities than unnatural ones (e.g. Ohala, 1992; Blevins, 2004). Thus, phonetically natural regularities might be typologically frequent because they are easier to acquire (synchronic perspective) or because they arise more frequently (diachronic perspective).
Language: English
Subfield: Experimental and Cognitive Psychology
Field: Psychology
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
Funder: Agence Nationale de la Recherche
OpenAlex ID: W780953584