Conclusions, Connections, and Implications

Abstract

The preceding chapters have presented data supporting a number of conclusions regarding the lexical diffusion of sound change, including the following: • Phonetically gradual and phonetically abrupt changes are both lexically diffused. • Whether the most frequent words or the least frequent are affected first in a sound change is dependent on the degree of analysis required in order to implement the change. Changes that affect the most frequent words require no analysis beyond the phonetic encoding. Changes that affect the least frequent words first require such analysis (word class, syllable structure, phonotactic constraints, etc.) • Lexical diffusion occurs within phonological environments. There is therefore no dichotomy between lexically diffused changes and phonetically conditioned changes. A sound change usually proceeds through phonetic analogy, i.e. by making connections between phonetically similar portions in the phonological representations of lexemes. • Word class and word frequency are independent influences upon the direction of a sound change. Lexical diffusion occurs within word classes, probably because word class is accessed in production prior to phonological form. • Function words change first in weakening sound changes, whereas content words change first in strengthening sound changes. • Lexical diffusion is one part of the implementation of a sound change. As a change is dispersing through the population and across phonological environments, it is simultaneously being diffused through the lexicon. • Word frequency effects are found in production, not in perception. • Lexical representations, including phonological representations, are linked in a connectionist network to other lexical representations, allowing generalizations to emerge which form the basis for the spread of the sound change to new words depending on phonetic or morphological resemblance. • Connections between lexical items can also lead to generalizations based on morphology or semantics, resulting in so-called “gang effects” (as in the patterning together of why, what, when, where in the loss of /h/ before /w/). • A usage-based, connectionist phonology best accounts for the varying routes of sound change. If words are stored in the lexicon and the phonology emerges from lexical connections, then the path of a sound change may be affected by any information in the lexicon, whether it be word frequency, word class, neighborhood density, semantics, or social correlates. KeywordsLexical DecisionWord FrequencyLexical ItemPhonological RepresentationLexical RepresentationThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.