Collocational and lexical frequency effects on language change: Variation in Acadian French sentential negative markers

Recently it has been suggested that a certain degree of variability in coarticulatory vowel nasalization is due to variation in the temporal alignment of nasal and oral gestures for N. In particular, the extent of vowel nasalization in VNC sequences is shown to be inversely related to the duration of the oral gesture for the nasal. Beddor [nasals and nasalization: the relation between segmental and coarticulatory timing, ICPhS (2007) present acoustic data which suggests this to be the case in English; in environments where nasals are shorter, such as VNC[−voice] versus VNC[+voice], anticipatory nasalization is longer. The present study examines vowel nasalization in such environments and attempts to corroborate the aforementioned acoustic findings with aerodynamic data. Additionally, other possible sources of variation in the extent of anticipatory nasalization are explored, namely, the effects of lexical frequency, which has been claimed to correlate negatively rather than positively with coarticulation [carborough (2004).]

It has been observed that lexical frequency affects various areas of speech production. In this paper, we attempt to analyze the effect of lexical frequency on the application of phonological processes. Specifically, as to the relationship between lexical frequency and lenition, we explain that, if a word is easily accessed since it is predictable and frequent, the leniting and automating processes will be processed more easily. However, if a word is less frequent and predictable, the leniting processes could be suppressed because more complete articulation will be required for the word. In addition, we pursued the way to encode the effect of lexical frequency in Optimality Theory. By analyzing the different application mode of vowel reduction in high-frequency and low-frequency words, we provide an analysis of the effect of lexical frequency on phonological processes with the assumption of different constraint rankings.

This paper examines the relationship between lexical frequency and phonological processes, focusing on rendaku in Japanese. Recently, the effect of lexical frequency on linguistic processes, either direct or indirect, has been confirmed in a growing body of studies. However, little attention has been paid to the potential effect of lexical frequency on rendaku. With this background, I examined the effect of lexical frequency on the applicability of rendaku, and developed an analogy-based model by incorporating lexical frequency. The results demonstrate (i) that lexical frequency affects the applicability of rendaku, (ii) less frequent compounds follow the existing patterns that the exemplar offers, and (iii) that rendaku is psychologically real; in other words, rendaku is productively applied to innovative forms, and such an application can be accounted for by the current model.

This study examined the activation of first language (L1) translations in second language (L2) word recognition in a lexical decision task. Test materials included English words that differed in the frequency of their Chinese translations or in their surface lexical frequency while other lexical properties were controlled. Chinese speakers of English as a second language of different proficiencies and native speakers of English were tested. Native speakers produced a reliable lexical frequency effect but no translation frequency effect. English as a second language speakers of lower English proficiency showed both a translation frequency effect and a lexical frequency effect, but those of higher English proficiency showed a lexical frequency effect only. The results were discussed in a verification model of L2 word recognition. According to the model, L2 word recognition entails a checking procedure in which activated L2 words are checked against their L1 translations. The two frequency effects are seen to have two different loci. The lexical frequency effect is associated with the initial activation of L2 lemmas, and the translation frequency effect arises in the verification process. Existing evidence for verification in L2 word recognition and new issues this model raises are discussed.

Article Sociolinguistic aspects of new dialect forms: language change in progress in Tokyo was published on January 1, 1986 in the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language (volume 1986, issue 58).

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In a typical human population, some features of the lan- guage are bound to be in flux. Variation in each individual's usage rates of optional features reflects language change in progress. Sociolinguistic sur- veys have determined that some individuals use new features to a greater degree than the population average, that is, they seem to be leading the change. This article describes a mathematical model of the spread of lan- guage change inspired by a model from population genetics. It incorporates the premise that some individuals are linguistic leaders and exert more in- fluence on the speech of learning children than others. Using historical data from the rise of do-support in English, a maximum likelihood calculation yields an estimate for the influence ratio used in the model. The influence ratio so inferred indicates that 19 of the 200 simulated individuals account for 95% of the total influence, confirming that language change may be driven by a relatively small group of leaders. The model can be improved in any number of ways, but additional features must be selected carefully so as not to produce a computationally intractable inference problem. This project demonstrates how data and techniques from different subfields of linguistics can be combined within a mathematical model to reveal other- wise inaccessible information about language variation and change.

This chapter focuses on the branch of sociolinguistics which has come to be recognized as “language variation and change (LVC)” or “variationist sociolinguistics”. It firstly provides an overview of LVC by explaining its genesis and a number of crucial roles played by variation in language (the notion of orderly heterogeneity; variation being functionally and socially meaningful; variation as an implicit necessity in the process of language change). It then outlines the research goals (constraint, embedding, transition, evaluation and actuation problems) as well as the methodological principles of LVC (the principle of accountability; circumscribing the variable context; the envelope of variation; linguistic constraints, social factors etc.). The third section illustrates the development of Japanese LVC studies by reviewing representative work within the variationist framework. It consists of four parts: phonological and phonetic variation and change; morphosyntactic variation and change; gender-related variation; and variation and change in diaspora Japanese varieties outside of Japan. They have demonstrated that language variation is neither chaotic nor random, but highly structured in Japanese varieties as well. They addressed the manifesto not only by describing language change in progress (the direction, speed and social evaluation of linguistic change), but also by attempting to account for the possible causes for change in order to contribute to the construction of a theory of language change. The final section provides a summary of this chapter and directions for further research in Japanese LVC study.

The lexical frequency effect in picture naming is generally assumed to constitute a signature of lexical access. Lexical frequency, however, is correlated with other variables, like concept familiarity, that can produce effects similar to those of lexical frequency in picture naming tasks. In this study, a delayed picture naming task was employed to address the hypothesis that the frequency effect in picture naming is due to variables that affect processing in the perceptual and semantic identification stages (i.e., input stages). Despite the fact that all the input processing stages were completed prior to the presentation of the naming cue, a strong frequency effect was still obtained in this task. These results establish that the lexical frequency effect is independent of variables affecting the input stages of picture naming, and, hence, confirm the lexical frequency effect as a signature effect of lexical access.

This study investigates the acquisition of subject placement in unergative and unaccusative predicates among heritage speakers of Spanish by addressing two constraints ruling the distribution of subject placement (i.e., verb type and focus) as well as by examining whether lexical frequency impacts their acquisition. Sixty-three heritage speakers and twenty-five Spanish-dominant bilinguals completed an oral elicited production task and an acceptability judgment task. Results show that verb type constraints in the heritage speakers are shaped by their proficiency and self-reported lexical frequency: more proficient heritage speakers rated VS sentences higher than their lower-proficient counterparts, and more instances of VS sentences were produced with more frequent unaccusative verbs. Focus constraints only impact the heritage speakers’ acceptability: in narrow focus contexts, heritage speakers rate SV higher than VS sentences. Lexical frequency effects in unaccusative predicates are argued to be the result of spell-outs favoring compatible linear orders as a way to reduce computational costs.

Mao Cui, Eunhae Oh. 2018. The effect of lexical frequency in modulating translation asymmetries on L2 learners. Language and Information, 22.1, 57-71. The study examined response time in Chinese-English two-way translation in order to explore the role of word frequency in modulating translation asymmetries between forward and backward translation. 23 Chinese learners of English at two different proficiency levels performed a word translation task of 90 concrete nouns, one-syllable in English words and two characters in Chinese words. The results showed that there were asymmetries between the two translation directions, with backward translation taking significantly longer time than forward translation. Word frequency played a role in modulating the asymmetries in that translating high-frequency items, regardless of direction, took significantly shorter time than the mid- and low-frequency items. But backward translation displayed larger magnitude of sensitivity to the variation of frequency than forward translation. It was suggested that both forward and backward translation were conceptually-mediated with differing strength in the linking between the lexical items and their conceptual representations, being stronger with high-frequency items than mid- and low-frequency items. Conceptual activation is easier for high frequency items.

ABSTRACTMany speakers of current Australian English often use a high-rising intonation in statements. This usage, which has been termed Australian Questioning Intonation (AQI), has a nonpropositional, interactive meaning (checking for listener comprehension) and interacts with the turn-taking mechanism of conversation. A quantitative study of the use of AQI in Sydney reveals that it has the social distribution characteristic of a language change in progress: higher rates of usage among working-class speakers, teenagers, and women. Real time data confirm this, showing that the form was almost nonexistent in this speech community two decades earlier. The social motivations of this innovation are examined in terms of local identity and the entry of new ethnic groups into the community, and possible linguistic sources are discussed. The utility of quantitative methods in studying meaningful linguistic variables is demonstrated. (Australian English, language change in progress, intonation, sociolinguistic variation, social class, social motivation)

This paper investigates the usability of Twitter as a resource for the study of language change in progress in low-resource languages. It is a panel study of a vigorous change in progress, the loss of final t in four relative pronouns (dy't, dêr't, wêr't, wa't) in Frisian, a language spoken by ± 450,000 speakers in the north-west of the Netherlands. This paper deals with the issues encountered in retrieving and analyzing tweets in low-resource languages, in the analysis of low-frequency variables, and in gathering background information on Twitterers. In this panel study we were able to identify and track 159 individual Twitterers, whose Frisian (and Dutch) tweets posted in the era 2010–2019 were collected. Nevertheless, a solid analysis of the sociolinguistic factors in this language change in progress was hampered by unequal age distributions among the Twitterers, the fact that the youngest birth cohorts have given up Twitter almost completely after 2014 and that the variables have a low frequency and are unequally spread over Twitterers.

ABSTRACTThe use of apparent time differences to study language change in progress has been a basic analytical construct in quantitative sociolinguistics for over 30 years. The basic assumption underlying the construct is that, unless there is evidence to the contrary, differences among generations of similar adults mirror actual diachronic developments in a language: the speech of each generation is assumed to reflect the language more or less as it existed at the time when that generation learned the language. In providing a mirror of real time change, apparent time forms the basis of a conceptual framework for exploring language change in progress. However, the basic assumptions that underlie apparent time have never been fully tested. This article tests those assumptions by comparing apparent time data from two recent random sample telephone surveys of Texas speech with real time data from the Linguistic Atlas of the Gulf States, which was conducted some 15 years before the telephone surveys. The real time differences between the linguistic atlas data and the data from the telephone surveys provide strong support for the apparent time construct. Whenever apparent time data in the telephone surveys clearly suggest change in progress, the atlas data show substantially fewer innovative forms. Whenever the apparent time data suggest stable variation, the atlas data are virtually identical to that from the more recent surveys. Whenever the relationships between real and apparent time data are unclear, sorting out mitigating factors, such as nativity and subregional residence, clarifies and confirms the relationships. The results of our test of the apparent time construct suggest that it is unquestionably a valid and useful analytical tool.

Oscillatory brain responses in spoken word production reflect lexical frequency and sentential constraint