Chapter 2
Of clocks, clouds and sound change
The study of sound change has evolved from a
heuristic tool for 19th century comparative historical
reconstruction into the backbone of the rigid approach to
language change developed by the Neogrammarians. In the
course of the 20th and early 21st century it has become
the main meeting point for a range of subdisciplines of
linguistics (historical linguistics, dialectology,
sociolinguistics, phonology, phonetics and cognitivist
approaches to phonetic variation). This contribution
sketches some of the main aspects of the approaches to
sound change taken in the various corners of the field. By
way of a synthesis a theory will be outlined in which
three approaches to sound change dovetail to account for
the huge and seemingly chaotic body of insights into the
phenomenon. Empirical studies of instances of both
historical and ongoing sound change in specific varieties
of Dutch will serve to illustrate parts of the theory.
Keywords: awareness, Exemplar Theory, generative phonology, hyperdialectism, indicator, marker, stereotype, lexically diffuse sound change, lexical frequency effects, life cycle of sound change, (mis–)perception, Neogrammarians, opacity, Optimality Theory, style, Usage based phonology, variation
Article outline
- 1.Introduction
- 2.The Neogrammarian legacy
- 3.Formal theory: Generative phonology and Optimality
Theory
- 3.1The life cycle of sound change
- 3.2Awareness
- 4.Sociolinguistics
- 4.1Exceptionlessness versus lexical diffuseness in the
sociolinguistic study of sound change
- 5.Cognitivist approaches
- 6.Towards an integrated theory
-
Notes
-
References