Phonological and grammatical variation in exemplar models

• Joan Bybee ^[1] ; Rena Torres Cacoullos ^[1]
  1. [1] University of New Mexico

     University of New Mexico

     Estados Unidos

     
• Localización: Studies in Hispanic and Lusophone linguistics, ISSN-e 2199-3386, ISSN 1939-0238, Vol. 1, Nº. 2, 2008, págs. 399-414
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Phonological and grammatical structure is shaped by usage patterns, as demonstrated by the effects of context and frequency on variation and change. We argue for an exemplar model of lexical representations, in which tokens of use are registered in memory, including phonetic detail as well as linguistic and social contextual information. Since variation is omnipresent in the input, it comes to be represented directly in cognitive representations, which are a record of speakers’ experience with language. Frequency of use and other lexical effects in sound change, which is gradual both phonetically and lexically, are built into exemplar models as the strengthening of exemplars by use and the clustering of exemplars based on phonetic and semantic similarities. The effects of particular lexical items and collocational discourse routines in morpho-syntactic variation and change, including the interaction of the particular and the general in grammaticization, are similarly modeled by the representation of specific instances of constructions and the gradient associations among related forms. Since variation in language use is pervasive and highly conditioned by context, exemplar models are particularly wellsuited to account for variation and change.