Abstract
In this paper I propose an interpretation of a series of phonological changes in the history of English (including Old English Breaking and the early Modern English Great Vowel Shift) from a cognitive phonology perspective. My analysis is based on Nathan (1886, 1995, 1996), who applies prototype theory to phonological description. In Nathan's analysis, the louder a sound is, the more prototypical effects it possesses. In processes of phonological change, phonemes change their number of prototypical effects. According to this view, we propose a classification that is based on two different prototypicality effects: degree of height and degree of peripherality. By treating both sound and meaning unit as mental categories, I try to show how the principles of categorization and generalization motivate similar diachronic patterns both in the phonological and in the semantic domain.
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