ARE PHONOLOGICAL ENTITIES FICTITIOUS OR REAL? Prepared by: Agnieszka Sowińska and Beata Szymczak Based on: ‘Self-organizing processes and the explanation of phonological universals’ by B.Lindblom

n Where do phonological universals such as segments and features come from?

...we will be using: n a self-organizing model of ‘phonological structure’ n implemented in a series of computational experiments organized to simulate the emergence of segments and features n which was to select a subset of k phonetic signals from a larger inventory of n universally ‘possible gestures’.

‘holistic coding’ n every derived syllable remains a gestalt pattern that cannot be fractioned into smaller parts occurring also in other syllables n one holistic phonetic signal per morpheme n every selected signal can be reduced to subparts shared with other syllables of the subset n mapping meaning onto sound by forming combinatory patterns of segments and features ’ ‘ phonemic coding’

THREE RESULTS LOOM LARGE: 1) the occurrence of MINIMAL PAIRS, (instances of ‘phonemic’ and ‘segmental coding’) 2) the possibility of analyzing the derived contrasts in terms of DISTINCTIVE FEATURES (eg. grave- acute) 3) the RULE governing the distribution of palatal and velar allophone of the ‘/g/ phoneme’ SEGMENT, FEATURE, RULE - are not explicit constructs of the present theory - BUT are IMPLICIT properties of the phonetic signals

The conditions under which structuration into segments and features arise the mechanism favouring phonemic coding (= the repeated contrastive use of a syllable onset and offset) requires that k - the ’lexicon’ - be much greater than the number of available onsets and offsets IF: IF: 1 the performance constraints severely limit the phonetic variation of onsets and offsets 2 k becomes sufficiently large relative to the phonetic repertoire THEN: THEN: speakers can find a way of making their inventory of phonetic signals grow ONLY by invoking gesture onsets and offsets repeatedly and in new combinations

It leads us further to... THE SEGMENTAL AND FEATURAL STRUCTURATION BUILT INTO THE PHYLOGENY AND ONTOGENY OF SPEECH AS A STATISTICAL BIAS, AND ARISING IMPLICITLY IN A ‘SELF- ORGANIZING’ MANNER

And now it’s high time we got down to the nitty-gritty: WHERE DO SEGMENTS AND FEATURES COME FROM?

Two general approaches: n ‘MENTALISTIC’ n based on information theory that treats speech as an error- correcting code ( eg. our early ancestors...) n ‘MECHANISTIC’ n eg. children-appear to use words as unanalyzed wholes; never aware of having acquired phonemic coding, which seems to emerge in an automatic and implicit manner

THE THEORY OF SELF- ORGANIZING SYSTEMS (a mechanistic explanation) n a scientific paradigm which has recently arisen at the intersection of physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology n aims at formulating the general laws governing the spontaneous occurrence of order in nature and the evolutionary dynamics

PHONOLOGICAL STRUCTURE n SELF- ORGANIZATION n INTERACTION AMONG SUBSYSTEMS STRUCTURATION

TERMITE NEST BUILDING (M. Turvey) n The form of these nests appears to arise as a result of a simple local behavioral pattern followed by each individual insect in the presence of certain local stimulus conditions

SIMULATIONS OF EMERGING PHONETIC STRUCTURE: n Size of ‘lexicon’ or signal inventory - k n Universal phonetic signal space (specific at three levels: articulation, acoustics, perception)

UNIVERSAL PHONETIC SIGNAL SPACE n We specify the lg-independent universal class of ‘possible articulations’ confined to vowels and voiced stops n these articulations involve transitions from a closed (stoplike) to and open (vowellike) state n ‘possible CV event’ ( a straight line coursing between a ‘possible locus’ - assigned to each closure location - and a ‘possible vowel’ ) n ‘possible CV syllable’ - any trajectory running between an arbitrarty but possible locus and an arbitrary but possible vowel in the space defined by the first four formants n ‘the CV space’- a continous one made up of infinitely many holistic signals (quantally structured)

Figure 1. The main result of the study: demonstrating that in the presence of certain constraints a continuous space can become quantally structured.

Phonetic constraints: n Talker-based conditions: n sensory discriminability n preference for ‘less extreme’ articulation n Listener-based conditions: n perceptual distance n perceptual salience

Where the open-close feature comes from in vowels? n THE AIM: the assigment of phonetic shape to a minilexicon consisting of k ‘lexical elements’ with distinct meanings n THE RESULT: systems of CV syllables tend to be selected in such a way that they achieve sufficient perceptual differences at acceptable articulatory costs n every syllable was used once as the initial item

SYLLABLE END POINTS Figure 2. Occurence of derived CV combinations

OUR CONCLUSIONS ARE... –The computations were insensitive to how the recursive search was initiated –the most favored vowel turned out to be [  ] –Figure 2 differs from a holistic coding in that individual CV transitions can indeed ‘be fractioned into smaller parts also occurring in other CV sequences’

Figure 3. Tendency towards complementary distribution of /g/ allophones

It will take us to two extreme outcomes... n We need: a minilexicon containing 12 words, in the form of CV syllables n We search for: sets of 12 CV sequences

The holistic coding -no ‘minimal pairs’ Every CV transition is a gestalt that cannot be fractioned into smaller parts also occurring in other CV sequences

END POINTS STARTING 1 2 POINTS 3 ALL POSSIBLE COMBINATIONS OF POINTS USED

‘running out of onsets/offsets’ as a numerical artefact n We ask the computer to generate no more than 7 syllables n The first item [ba ] - the gradual emergence of a near-optimal sequence of syllables in a schematic way

THE RESULTS ARE: n ’minimal pairs’; the simulated ‘phonemic constraints’ are not artefacts, and they could by a result of ‘running out of onsets/offsets’ n the size of that inventory is determined by the severity of the performance constraints n the rank order is determined by the perceptual distance and salience criterion

The origin of segments and features: an explanation based on the concept of self- organization n - Random sampling of the possibilities offered by the universal phonetic space should make all such possibilities equally possible. However, in the presence of certain constraints, nonuniform preferences for certain syllables over others arise (’quantal structuration’). - The notion of ’system’ implies certain paradigmatic relations among the elements of the system must hold. When those relations are present, structuration occurs >implicit form emerges and the causes of such pattern formation are indirect. - The notion of ’system’ implies certain paradigmatic relations among the elements of the system must hold. When those relations are present, structuration occurs >implicit form emerges and the causes of such pattern formation are indirect. n Let us describe our ancestors’ joint effort to define the phonetic shapes of a growing set of concepts as ’A RANDOM SAMPLING OF THE UNIVERSAL PHONETIC SPACE IN THE PRESENCE OF PERFORMANCE CONSTRAINTS’. 

 Our preceding reasoning that quantal structuration is built into the phylogeny of speech as a statistical bizs should apply. When several individuals find that their random samplings sometimes converge and similar signals are favoured, a situation that might be conducive to socially conventionalised ’naming’ appesrs to be at hand. n Results: 1) evidence of phonemelike or segmental coding 1) evidence of phonemelike or segmental coding 2) the predicted syllables bear some, if not strong, resemblance to natural sets of syllables 2) the predicted syllables bear some, if not strong, resemblance to natural sets of syllables 3) the rather realistic allophonic variation of the ’/g/ phoneme’ 3) the rather realistic allophonic variation of the ’/g/ phoneme’ n F EATURE, PHONEME, and ALLOPHONIC RULE are present only IMPLICIT properties of the behaviour. They are derived rather than axiomatically postulated as ’substantive universals’.

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