Phonology and language use /

This book investigates various ways in which a speaker/hearer's experience with language affects the representation of phonology. The author adopts an exemplar model, in which specific tokens of use are stored and categorized phonetically with reference to variables in the context. This model allows an account of phonetically gradual sound change that produces lexical variation, and provides an explanatory account of the fact that many reductive sound changes affect high-frequency items first. The well-known effects of type and token frequency on morphologically conditioned phonological alterations are shown also to apply to larger sequences, such as fixed phrases and constructions, solving some of the problems formulated previously as dealing with the phonology-syntax interface.Originally published: 2001.Includes bibliographical references (p. 217-230) and indexes.This book investigates various ways in which a speaker/hearer's experience with language affects the representation of phonology. The author adopts an exemplar model, in which specific tokens of use are stored and categorized phonetically with reference to variables in the context. This model allows an account of phonetically gradual sound change that produces lexical variation, and provides an explanatory account of the fact that many reductive sound changes affect high-frequency items first. The well-known effects of type and token frequency on morphologically conditioned phonological alterations are shown also to apply to larger sequences, such as fixed phrases and constructions, solving some of the problems formulated previously as dealing with the phonology-syntax interface