Doctoral Dissertation Research: Investigating the mechanism of phonological change in progress: Allophonic restructuring of /ae/ in Philadelphia

博士论文研究：调查正在进行中的语音变化的机制：费城/ae/的异音重组

• 批准号: 1628408
• 负责人: Meredith Tamminga
• 金额: $ 1.41万
• 依托单位: University of Pennsylvania
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-07-15 至 2018-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1628408&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Investigating; mechanism

The goal of this dissertation project is to deepen our understanding of how language change spreads through a speech community. Language change is a constant and inevitable fact about language: new words, new sound patterns, new syntactic constructions. Because large-scale sound recordings are relatively new, very little is understood about the production and mental representation of sound changes in the minds of individuals who acquire language during a period of phonological change. This project investigates a phonological restructuring currently in progress in Philadelphia, in order to identify the mechanism of phonological change as it propagates through individual speakers in a speech community. The results will form the basis of a science fair exhibit on phonological change in Philadelphia, educating the public on language change and emphasizing the value of linguistic diversity. Phonological change is defined as a change in the abstract representation or allophonic rules governing a phonological segment, to the exclusion of phonetic change, which entails a change in the physical output of a phonological segment. Previous hypotheses have suggested that phonological change occurs as the result of phonetic incrementation (Ohala, 1981), occurs before any phonetic incrementation (Fruehwald, 2013; Janda and Joseph 2003), or through an extension of competing grammars (Kroch, 1989; 2001) to phonological change (Fruehwald et al. 2013). The restructuring of short-a in Philadelphia provides an ideal testing ground for these three theories of phonological change, as it is an ongoing change allowing access to the critical speakers, and as the outputs of both systems provide clear evidence regarding the underlying system. Understanding the mechanism of phonological change within individuals will shed light on the mental representations of language change more broadly. Preliminary findings suggest the operation of two phonological subsystems of short-a within a single speaker, supporting the extension of competing grammars to phonological change and suggesting that categorical linguistic change in both the syntactic and phonological domain may occur through a period of grammar competition within individual speakers.

该论文项目的目的是加深我们对语言变化如何通过语音社区传播的理解。语言变化是关于语言的恒定而不可避免的事实：新单词，新的声音模式，新的句法结构。由于大规模的声音录音相对较新，因此几乎没有关于在语音变化期间获得语言的个人思维的生产和心理表示的理解。该项目调查了费城目前正在进行的语音重组，以确定语音变化的机制，因为它通过语音社区中的单个说话者传播。结果将构成费城语音变化的科学博览会展览的基础，向公众教育语言变化并强调语言多样性的价值。语音变化被定义为在语音段的抽象表示或同种规则中的变化，以排除语音变化，这需要变化语音段的物理输出。先前的假设表明，语音变化是由于语音增量的结果发生（Ohala，1981），发生在任何语音增量之前（Fruehwald，2013; Janda and Joseph 2003），或者通过竞争语法的广泛（Kroch，1989; 2001）到语音学变化（Fruehwald et al。2013）。费城短暂A的重组为这三种语音变化理论提供了理想的测试场，因为这是一种持续的变化，允许访问关键扬声器，并且由于两个系统的输出都提供了有关基础系统的明确证据。了解个体内部语音变化的机制将揭示语言的心理表现形式更广泛地变化。初步发现表明，单个扬声器在单个扬声器中的两个语音子系统的操作，支持竞争语法扩展到语音变化，并表明，语法和语音学领域的分类语言变化可能会通过单个扬声器中的语法竞争时期发生。