Sound change: the regular, the unconscious, the mysterious W. Labov, U. of Pennsylvania Colloquy on Hermann Paul FRIAS/HPCL May 15, 2009

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Herman Paul PRINCIPLES OF THE HISTORY OF LANGUAGE BY HERMANN PAUL TRANSLATED FROM THE SECOND EDITION OF THE ORIGINAL BY H. A. STRONG, M. A., LL.D. NEW YORK MACMILLAN & CO. 1889

Summary of the critique of Paul in WLH 1968 the sole theoretically grounded object of linguistic study is the idiolect, but there is no explanation as to how community consensus is achieved. change may come about when an individual skews the distribution of his performance to seek more comfortable behavior patterns, but this key term is not defined, nor is their any accounting of the sporadic character of this adjustment. the grouping of idiolects with respect to features shows no organization that would prefer one grouping rather than another.

Summary of the appreciation of Paul in WLH 1968 Paul’s Principien may be said to reflect the best achievements of Neogrammarian linguistics. maximum rigor of formulation of the regularity principle an intensive interest in recurrent regularities a concern with phonetic detail a feeling for the atypicality of standardized languages among the totality of languages a desire to “portray as many-sidedly as possible the conditions of the life of language [ Sprachleben]”. recognition of the dialectological point of view on language change.

regularity

The Neogrammarian position Every sound change, inasmuch as it occurs mechanically, takes place according to laws that admit no exception. --Ostoff and Brugmann 1878

Paul on uniformity We have now to answer the important question, which has been in recent times the subject of so much dispute: Can we assert uniformity of sound-laws?.. Sound-law does not pretend to state what must always under certain general conditions regularly recur, but merely express the reign of uniformity within a group of definite historical phenomena. PHL

Paul on the regularity of sound change It must either happen, therefore, that where the same sound existed previously, the same sound always remains in the later stages of development as well; or, where a separation into different sounds has occurred, there must be a special reason to be assigned; and further, a reason of a kind affecting sound alone PHL p. 58

Twentieth century formulation of the Neogrammarian position Sound-change is merely a change in the speakers’ manner of producing phonemes and accordingly, affects a phoneme at every occurrence, regardless of the nature of any particular linguistic form in which the phoneme happens to occur... The whole assumption can be briefly put into the words: phonemes change. --Bloomfield 1933:353-4

Lexical diffusion The phonetic law does not affect all items at the same time: some are designed to develop quickly, others remain behind, some offer strong resistance and succeed in turning back any effort at transformation. --Gauchat (cited in Dauzat 1922) We hold that words change their pronunciations by discrete, perceptual increments (i.e., phonetically abrupt) but severally at a time (i.e., lexically gradual) --Wang and Chen 1977:150.

Exemplar theory and lexical diffusion The assumption that people learn phonetic categories by remembering many labeled tokens of these categories explains... why leniting historical changes are typically more advanced for high-frequency words than low- frequency words. -- Pierre-Humbert: Exemplar dynamics: word frequency, lenition and contrast (2000). To appear in J. Bybee and P. Hopper (eds.), Frequency effects and emergent grammar.

Resolving the Neogrammarian Controversy (Labov 1981) Regular sound change is the result of a gradual transformation of a single phonetic feature of a phoneme in a continuous phonetic space. Lexical diffusion is the result of the abrupt substitution of one phoneme for another in words that contain that phoneme.

/i:/ [iy] [uw]/u:/ /e:/ /o:/ /æ:/ [ay] [aw] / ɔ :/ The English Great Vowel shift (Jespersen)

Ogura on lexical diffusion in the English Great Vowel Shift “The data in Appendix B clearly show that the change of ME i: does not simultaneously occur but gradually extends its scope across the lexicon) We have claimed that the processes of the development of ME i: and u: have propagated themselves gradually from morpheme to morpheme.” --Mieko Ogura Historical English Phonology: A Lexical Perspective. Tokyo: Kenkyusha. p. 45)

Phonetic realizations of M.E. u: words in the Survey of English Dialects

Multi-dimensional scaling of all M.E. i: words

The i:2 class ( i :2): M.E. short i followed by a velar consonant and /t/ in right, night, fight, sight, etc. In the history of the best known dialects, the velar was first realized as a voiceless palatal and then disappeared, with compensatory lengthening of the vowel.

The i:3 class (i:3) : long e: followed by g in Old English in lie, fly, die, and long ɛ : in eye, etc. The /g/ has been lenited in all the dialects covered by the Orton Atlas, but the raising of the vowel to i: did not occur in all dialects.

Muli-dimensional scaling of core M.E. i: words

Reports of lexical diffusion, Cheng, Chin-Chuan, and Wang, Wm. S-Y Phonological change of Middle Chinese initials. University of California (Berkeley) Dept. of Linguistics. Project on Linguistic Analysis, Second Series, 10 CW1 - CW Sherman, D Noun-verb stress alternation: an example of the lexical diffusion of sound change in English. Project on Linguistic Analysis, Reports, Second Series, 17: Barrack, C. M Lexical diffusion and the High German consonant shift. Lingua 40: Toon, Thomas E The variationist analysis of Early Old English manuscript data. In W. M. Christie Jr. (ed.), Proceedings of the Second International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: North Holland. Pp Toon, Thomas E The actuation and implementation of an Old English sound change. In R. J. Di Pietro & E. L. Blansitt (eds.), The Third Lacus Forum. Pp Columbia, SC: Hornbeam Press, Inc Cheng, Chin-chuan and William S.-Y. Wang Tone change in Chaozhou Chinese: a study of lexical diffusion. In W. S-Y. Wang (ed),The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague: Mouton Pp Wang, William S.-Y. and C.-C. Cheng Implementation of phonological change: the Shaungfeng Chinese case. In W. S-Y. Wang (ed.),The lexicon in phonological change. The Hague: Mouton.

Reports of lexical diffusion, Janson, Tore Reversed lexical diffusion and lexical split: Loss of -d in Stockholm. In Wang (ed.), The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague: Mouton. Pp Lyovin, Anatole Sound change, homophony, and lexical diffusion. In W. Wang (ed.), The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague: Mouton. Pp Krishnamurti, Bh Areal and lexical diffusion of sound change. Language Toon, Tomas E Lexical diffusion in Old English. CLS. Papers from the Parasessions on the Lexicon Wang, William S.-Y Language change--a lexical perspective. Ann. Rev. Anthropol. 8: Milroy, James Lexical alternation and the history of English: evidence from an urban vernacular. In E. Traugott et al. (ed., Papers from the 4th International Conference on Historical Linguistics. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Phillips, B. S Lexical diffusion and Southern Tune, Duke, News. American Speech 56: Wallace, Rex The variable deletion of final s in Latin. Ohio State M.A. Thesis. Bauer, Robert S Cantonese sociolinguistic patterns: correlating social characteristics of speakers with phonological variables in Hong Kong Cantonese. U. of California Berkeley dissertation.

Reports of lexical diffusion, Li, Paul Jen-Kuei Linguistic variations of different age groups in the Atayalic dialects. The Tsing Hua Journal of Chinese Studies, new series, 14: Chan, Marjorie K. M Lexical diffusion and two Chinese case studies re-analyzed. Acta Orientalia 44: Phillips, Betty S Middle English diphthongization, phonetic analogy, and lexical diffusion. WORD 34.1: April Phillips, B. S Word frequency and the actuation of sound change. Language 60: Wallace, Rex Variable deletion of -s in Latin: Its consequences for Romance. In Baldi, P. (ed), Papers from the XIIth Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages. Philadelphia: J., Benjamins. Pp Fagan, D. S Competing sound change via lexical diffusion in a Portuguese dialect. Sezione Romanza 27: , Bauer, Robert S The microhistory of a sound change in progress in Hong Kong Cantonese. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 14: Lien, Chinfa Coexistent tone systems in Chinese dialects. Berkeley: University of California dissertation.

Reports of lexical diffusion, Gamble, G Nootkan glottalized resonsants in Nitinat: a case of lexical diffusion. In W. Wang (ed.), The Lexicon in Phonological Change. The Hague: Mouton. Pp Ogura, Mieko Historical English Phonology: A Lexical Perspective. Tokyo: Kenkyusha Harris, John Towards a lexical analysis of sound change in progress. Journal of Linguistics 25: Labov, William The exact description of the speech community: short a in Philadelphia. In R. Fasold & D. Schiffrin (eds.),Language Change and Variation. Washington, Georgetown U.P. Pp Phillips, Betty S The Diffusion of a Borrowed Sound Change. JENGL 22.2, October 1990 Shen, Zhongwei Lexical diffusion: a population perspective and a numerical model. Journal of Chinese Linguistics 18: Ogura, Mieko, William S.-Y. Wang and L. L. Cavalli-Sforza The development of ME i in England: a study in dynamic dialectology. In P. Eckert (ed.), New Ways of Analyzing Sound Change. New York: Academic Press, pp

Reports of lexical diffusion, Wang, William S.-Y. and Chinfa Lien Bidirectional diffusion in sound change. In Charles Jones (ed.), Historical Linguistics: Problems and Perspectives. London: Longman Ltd. Pp Krishnamurti, Bh Regularity of sound change through lexical diffusion (A study of s > h > zero in Gondi dialects. Paper presented to the Panel on Lexical Diffusion at the 16th Intwernational Congress of Linguists, Paris, July Krishnamurti, Bh Regularity of sound change through lexical diffusion: A study of s > h > 0 in Gondi dialects. Language Variation and Change 10: Phillips, Betty S Word frequency and lexical diffusion. New York: Palgrave Macmillan..

ANAE Atlas of North American EQnglish

ANAE Principles of Linguistic Change, Vol. III Chapter 13 Words floating on the surface of sound change

Fronting of /ow/ in North America

Distribution of /ow/ vowels for all of North America. [N=8313].Vowels before /l/ are shown in black [N=1577].

Absence of fronting of Vw in vowel system of Alex S., 42, Providence, RI TS 474.

Fronting of all Vw in the vowel system of Danica L., 37, Columbus, OH, TS 737.

34 most frequent /ow/ words in the Brown and Telsur corpora

Regression coefficients for the fronting of /ow/ in ANAE data [N=7796] p < <.001 <.05

Surviving regression coefficients in both halves of a random split in the /ow/ tokens [even = 3927, odd = 3869] F1/F2 position of 348 no tokens in /ow/ distribution [N=8296] p < <.001 <.05 no home

Fronting of /ow/ for words before /l/ and others for all of North America and for the Southeast (South and Midland). Words selected by regression analysis at p <.001 level as ahead of phonological prediction, light blue; behind, yellow.

Paul on the fluctuation of words Vacillations of pronunciation caused by quicker or slower, louder or gentler, more careful or more negligent utterances, will always affect the same element in the same manner, no matter in what word it may occur--PHL 59

Absence of fronting of Vw in vowel system of Alex S., 42, Providence, RI TS 474.

Fronting of all Vw in the vowel system of Danica L., 37, Columbus, OH, TS 737.

Is home a lexical exception to the fronting of /ow/? NF1F2 /ow/ /owl/ home Oklahoma homebody, etc Omaha hoe

The /h_m/ effect on the fronting of /ow/

the unconscious

Paul on the unconscious character of sound change... there is no such thing as a conscious effort to prevent sound change. For those who are affected by the chnge have no suspicion that there is anything to guard against, and they pass their lives always in the simple belief that they speak today as they spoke years ago, and that they will continue to the end to speak in the same way. PHL 48.

Conscious correction of a completed change: reading and word lists in New York City We chased him with a ba--a baseball bat and yell, “Bad boy! bad, bad! but he was too.. fast, only my aunt could catch him. Paul all ball awful coffee office chalk chocolate chock

Word Phrase Sentence 1. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 2. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 3. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 4. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 5. _________ ________________ ___________________________ 6. _________ ________________ ___________________________ Project on Cross-Dialectal Comprehension: Gating Experiment 2

head desk boss busses block socks mat The Northern Cities Shift

block living on Senior citizens one block living on one block Percent correct in Gating Experiments by city and educational level in Cross Dialectal Comprehension study: block

Formant measurements of word lists read by advanced speakers in Birmingham [B], Chicago[C] and Philadelphia [P]

Adult change in real time? Were anyone able to compare the movements which his organs made in the utterance of a word many years before with those which he makes at present, he would most likely find a striking difference. But to make any such real comparison would be an impossibility. PHL 48

Real time changes in the lenition of (ch) in Panama City in Cedergren’s trend study,

Model of generational change of (ch) in Panama City with no age-grading

Regression analyses of fronting of (aw) of men and women by decade in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Study [N=112]

Lifespan trajectory of a hypothetical sound change for females born in 1962, 1970, 1986 with no adult increment (Labov 1994) b b b. 1962

The critical period revised: possible models of adult participation in sound change Stable Linear Inverse power

Lifespan trajectory of a hypothetical sound change for females born in 1962, 1970, 1986 with progressively diminishing adult incrementation: cut-off point 17 years b b b r 2 =.998

mysteries

The individual and the community all purely psychical reciprocal operation comes to its fulfillment in the individual mind alone. PHL xxxvii All that we imagine that we know about the ideas of another individual depends exclusively upon conclusions drawn from our own. PHL xxxix The great resemblance of all linguistic processes n the most different individuals is the most essential foundation for an exact scientific knkowledge of these processes.PHL xlv

The enigma of uniformity It is by intercourse, and nothing else, that the language of the individual is generated. PHL23 If we start with the undeniable truth that each individual has his or her own language, and that each such language has its own history, the problem is not so much how from a language essentially uniform different dialects arise.. The problem which challenges solution is this: How comes it that while the language of each individual has its own special history, this degree of agreement--a certain greater or less--maintains itself within this miscellaneously constituted group of individuals? PHL23

accommodation by the socially integrated speakers of type A... is often surpassed by type D speakers... with loose and ephemeral network contacts who are highly dissatisfied with their social life... It appears that the best predictor of accommodation is not frequency of interaction but instead a strong attitudinal orientation towards the group with whom one wants to associate -- p. 356 Auer and Hinskens (2005): The role of interpersonal accommodation in a theory of language change

Auer and Hinskens (2005) conclusion...we certainly cannot exclude the possibility that participants in the interaction accommodate to each other’s behavior nor can we exclude the possibility that the frequency of exposure to a new, spreading feature through intensive network contacts with its users can lead to the adoption of this variable.

The fronting of (aw) shown by increase of the second formant with diminishing age in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Study [N=112]

Figure 5. The curvilinear pattern for social class in the fronting of (aw) in south, down, out, etc. in Philadelphia Celeste 2578 Hz

Combines answers to questions about the density of communication on the block: How many people on the block do you say hello to? have coffee with? ask for advice?... with the proportion of friends who live off the block. The communication index C5

Scattergram of the fronting of (aw) by the communication index C5 for women in four Philadelphia neighborhoods

Sociometric position of Celeste S. in the Clark St. network (Upper figure: advancement of change, lower figure, C5 index).

(Katz and Lazarsfeld, Personal Influence) The two-step flow of communication

Fronting of /ey/ (F2) in closed syllables in made, pain, lake, etc. by age with partial regression lines for 6 socioeconomic groups in Philadelphia [N=112] Fronting of (aw) for 112 speakers in the Philadelphia Neighborhood Study by age and social class

Thus the symmetry of any system of forms meets in sound change an incessant and aggressive foe. It is hard to realize how disconnected, confused, and unintelligible language would gradually become if it had patiently to endure all the devastations of sound change. Paul 1891 On the negative effects of sound change

Natural misunderstanding: cat => cod Neither my boyfriend Dave nor I are natives to Michigan, and we are not NCS speakers. Dave had the following misunderstanding happen three times in the Lansing area, at two different grocery stores, with two different workers: he asked for 'catfish' and the man behind the counter gave him cod, thinking he said 'codfish.’

Natural misunderstanding: pets => pots Telephone surveyor [Chicago]: Do you have any pets in the house? Brian T. [Eastern US] => pots. [thought that 'pot' was not likely since everyone has pots and pot = marijuana was too personal; asked for repetition several times until understood.]

Map North American dialects

The U.S. at Night

U.S. at Night The Inland North Rochester Detroit Syracuse Buffalo Cleveland Chicago Milwaukee Toledo Grand Rapids Flint Joliet Kenoshat

Settlement patterns (Kniffen and Glassie 1966)

Figure 3.2. Relationships among America’s Most Populous Metropolitan Areas

Relationships among America’s Most Populous Metropolitan Areas. Heavy lines indicate the largest outflows of interstate telephone calls for a sample period in Light lines indicate largest or second largest outflows of air passengers from SMSAs over 250,000. The flows mapped from open city symbols are primary flows; flows mapped from solid city symbols are second largest outflows or traffic shadow assignments if they are within about 100 miles of their superordinate. With the exception of places very close to one of the 20 study regions, almost all of the places east of the Mississippi for which secondary flows are indicated sent their primary outflow to New York City. Sources: Telephone call data: American Telephone and Telegraph Company. Air Passenger Data: courtesy of Professor Michael O. Filani, University of Ibadan. Caption for Figure 3.2.

Figure 9. The UD measure of the Northern Cities Shift

Summary of the appreciation of Paul in WLH 1968 Paul’s Principien may be said to reflect the best achievements of Neogrammarian linguistics. maximum rigor of formulation of the regularity principle an intensive interest in recurrent regularities a concern with phonetic detail a feeling for the atypicality of standardized languages among the totality of languages a desire to “portray as many-sidedly as possible the conditions of the life of language [ Sprachleben]”. recognition of the dialectological point of view on language change.

Summary of the critique of Paul in WLH 1968 the sole theoretically grounded object of linguistic study is the idiolect, but there is no explanation as to how community consensus is achieved. change may come about when an individual skews the distribution of his performance to seek more comfortable behavior patterns, but this key term is not defined, nor is their any accounting of the sporadic character of this adjustment. the grouping of idiolects with respect to features shows no organization that would prefer one grouping rather than another. √ the answer must lie in transmission among children, but there is some evidence for an ideological substratum among adults √ principle of maximal dispersion combined with general principles governing chain shifting √ some progress on the actuation problem in searching for triggering events in both linguistic and social context √ ANAE defines dialects by the active chain shifts in progress, in a phonology organized as hierarchical sets of subsystems in the framework of Martinet and Weinreich