Phonological Rule Change: The Constant Rate Effect

The proceedings of the North-Eastern Linguistic Society (NELS)

Authors

Josef Fruehwald

Jonathan Gress Wright

Joel Wallenberg

Published

2013

Abstract

The detailed quantitative study of language change, as found in studies such as Labov (1994) and Kroch (1989), has raised two central questions for linguistic theory. The first is an issue in the theory of language change itself, namely: do changes in different components of the grammar progress in the same way? The second question addresses the relationship between the study of change and the development of synchronic linguistic theory: can quantitative, diachronic data help to choose between alternative analyses of synchronic facts? This paper addresses both of these questions with the case study of the loss of word-final stop fortition (frequently termed “devoicing”) in the history of German, and concludes that the answer to both questions above is “yes”.

Citation

BibTeX citation:

@article{fruehwald2013,
  author = {Fruehwald, Josef and Gress Wright, Jonathan and Wallenberg,
    Joel},
  title = {Phonological {Rule} {Change:} {The} {Constant} {Rate}
    {Effect}},
  journal = {The proceedings of the North-Eastern Linguistic Society
    (NELS)},
  volume = {40},
  date = {2013},
  url = {https://github.com/JoFrhwld/jofrhwld.github.io/research/papers/Fruehwald_2013_W28LR5KT.html},
  langid = {en},
  abstract = {The detailed quantitative study of language change, as
    found in studies such as Labov (1994) and Kroch (1989), has raised
    two central questions for linguistic theory. The first is an issue
    in the theory of language change itself, namely: do changes in
    different components of the grammar progress in the same way? The
    second question addresses the relationship between the study of
    change and the development of synchronic linguistic theory: can
    quantitative, diachronic data help to choose between alternative
    analyses of synchronic facts? This paper addresses both of these
    questions with the case study of the loss of word-final stop
    fortition (frequently termed “devoicing”) in the history of German,
    and concludes that the answer to both questions above is “yes”.}
}

For attribution, please cite this work as:

Fruehwald, Josef, Jonathan Gress Wright, and Joel Wallenberg. 2013. “Phonological Rule Change: The Constant Rate Effect.” The Proceedings of the North-Eastern Linguistic Society (NELS) 40. https://github.com/JoFrhwld/jofrhwld.github.io/research/papers/Fruehwald_2013_W28LR5KT.html.