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.

本论文项目的目标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一个持续且不可避免的事实：新单词、新声音模式、新句法结构。由于大规模录音相对较新，因此对于在语音变化时期习得语言的个体头脑中声音变化的产生和心理表征知之甚少。该项目调查了费城目前正在进行的语音重组，以便确定语音社区中个体说话者传播时语音变化的机制。研究结果将成为费城语音变化科学博览会的基础，向公众进行有关语言变化的教育并强调语言多样性的价值。音系变化被定义为控制音系片段的抽象表示或音位变体规则的变化，排除语音变化，这导致音系片段的物理输出的变化。先前的假设表明，语音变化是语音增量的结果（Ohala，1981），发生在任何语音增量之前（Fruehwald，2013；Janda 和 Joseph 2003），或者通过竞争语法的扩展（Kroch，1989；2001）语音变化（Fruehwald et al. 2013）。费城的 Short-a 重组为这三种语音变化理论提供了理想的试验场，因为这是一个持续的变化，允许访问关键的说话者，并且两个系统的输出都提供了有关底层系统的明确证据。了解个体内部语音变化的机制将更广泛地揭示语言变化的心理表征。初步研究结果表明，单个说话者体内有两个短a的音系子系统，支持将竞争语法扩展到音系变化，并表明句法和音系领域的分类语言变化可能是通过个体内部一段时期的语法竞争而发生的。扬声器。