Betty S. Phillips

Word Frequency and the Actuation of Sound Change

By presenting evidence from three different sound changes within the history of English, this paper demonstrates that sound changes do not always affect the most frequent words first; on the contrary, certain changes affect the least frequent words first. A comparison of sound changes exhibiting each direction of diffusion reveals that changes affecting the most frequent words first are motivated by physiological factors, acting on surface phonetic forms; changes affecting the least frequent words first are motivated by other, non-physiological factors, acting on underlying forms. Thus a direct correlation is drawn between the direction of diffusion and the actuation of sound change.

Nicknames and sex role stereotypes

Since nicknames are a very fluid component of language, they become a useful tool for revealing current sex role stereotypes. A study of 380 nicknames collected from 175 young women and men ages 14–19 shows that males assign most nicknames and males receive more names based on surnames; also, connotations of strength, largeness, hardness, and maturity are typical of male nicknames. For female nicknames, physical attributes are more important, and connotations are typically of beauty, pleasantness, kindness, and goodness. Nicknames do not reflect much difference in activity, however, a quality that in earlier studies is associated predominantly with males.

Old English an ∼ on: a New Appraisal

in Anglian texts of the ninth and tenth centuries, spellings in o are either completely carried through or are by far more numerous than spellings in a. In the West Saxon and Kentish dialects, on the other hand, spellings in o are more common than those in a in the ninth-century manuscripts, but during the tenth century the number of spellings in a gradually increases until it has for all intents and purposes completely supplanted the earlier spellings in o by the end of that century. -

Lexical diffusion is not lexical analogy

AbstractThis paper refutes Kiparskys claim that lexical diffusion “behave[s] like lexical analogy in every respect” (1995:643). Evidence from American English glide deletion, t/d deletion, and vowel reduction/deletion before /r/ is elicited to demonstrate the gradient nature of lexical diffusion, as opposed to the quantal nature Kiparsky attributes to lexical analogy. Kiparskys claim that “the mechanism [for lexical diffusion] is analogical in just the sense in which, for example, the regularization of kine to cows is analogical” is refuted by reference to sound changes which affect the most frequent words first, not the least frequent, as happens in truly analogical changes. In fact, two stress shifts in English, both of which would affect Stratum 1 phonology, exhibit differing patterns of diffusion. It is shown that the use of the term lexical analogy is ambiguous, that Kiparsky uses it to mean both the motivation behind the actuation of the change and the means by which the change is implemented in t...

The Mental Lexicon: Evidence from Lexical Diffusion

The purpose of this paper is to bring together evidence from studies on the lexical diffusion of various sound changes to support the following characteristics of the mental lexicon: (a) it must be connectionist rather than generative; (b) it must include information about grammatical category; (c) it must provide information on lexical frequency or entrenchment; and (d) entries must contain phonetic detail. Overall, lexical diffusion studies support a fully specified, connectionist model of the lexicon.