30.4304, Books: Sound structure and sound change: Morley

[The LINGUIST List]

LINGUIST List: Vol-30-4304. Tue Nov 12 2019. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 30.4304, Books: Sound structure and sound change: Morley

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Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2019 22:02:02
From: Sebastian Nordhoff [Sebastian.Nordhoff at langsci-press.org]
Subject: Sound structure and sound change: Morley

 


Title: Sound structure and sound change 
Subtitle: A modeling approach 
Series Title: Conceptual Foundations of Language Science  

Publication Year: 2019 
Publisher: Language Science Press
	   http://langsci-press.org
	

Book URL: http://langsci-press.org/catalog/book/251 


Author: Rebecca L. Morley

Electronic: ISBN:  9783961101900 Pages: 130 Price: Europe EURO 0 Comment: Open Access


Abstract:

Research in linguistics, as in most other scientific domains, is usually
approached in a modular way – narrowing the domain of inquiry in order to
allow for increased depth of study. This is necessary and productive for a
topic as wide-ranging and complex as human language. However, precisely
because language is a complex system, tied to perception, learning, memory,
and social organization, the assumption of modularity can also be an obstacle
to understanding language at a deeper level. This book examines the
consequences of enforcing non-modularity along two dimensions: the temporal,
and the cognitive. Along the temporal dimension, synchronic and diachronic
domains are linked by the requirement that sound changes must lead to viable,
stable language states. Along the cognitive dimension, sound change and
variation are linked to speech perception and production by requiring
non-trivial transformations between acoustic and articulatory representations.

The methodological focus of this work is on computational modeling. By
formalising and implementing theoretical accounts, modeling can expose
theoretical gaps and covert assumptions. To do so, it is necessary to formally
assess the functional equivalence of specific implementational choices, as
well as their mapping to theoretical structures. This book applies this
analytic approach to a series of implemented models of sound change. As
theoretical inconsistencies are discovered, possible solutions are proposed,
incrementally constructing a set of sufficient properties for a working model.
Because internal theoretical consistency is enforced, this model corresponds
to an explanatorily adequate theory. And because explicit links between
modules are required, this is a theory, not only of sound change, but of many
aspects of phonological competence.

The book highlights two aspects of modeling work that receive relatively
little attention: the formal mapping from model to theory, and the scalability
of demonstration models. Focusing on these aspects of modeling makes it clear
that any theory of sound change in the specific is impossible without a more
general theory of language: of the relationship between perception and
production, the relationship between phonetics and phonology, the learning of
linguistic units, and the nature of underlying representations. Theories of
sound change that do not explicitly address these aspects of language are
making tacit, untested assumptions about their properties. Addressing so many
aspects of language may seem to complicate the linguist's task. However, as
this book shows, it actually helps impose boundary conditions of ecological
validity that reduce the theoretical search space.
 



Linguistic Field(s): Cognitive Science
                     Phonetics
                     Phonology


Written In: English  (eng)

See this book announcement on our website: 
http://linguistlist.org/pubs/books/get-book.cfm?BookID=138913




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