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Changing Words and Sounds: The Roles of Different Cognitive Units in Sound Change
Author(s) -
Sóskuthy Márton,
Foulkes Paul,
Hughes Vincent,
Haddican Bill
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
topics in cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.191
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1756-8765
pISSN - 1756-8757
DOI - 10.1111/tops.12346
Subject(s) - sound change , sound (geography) , cognition , psychology , cognitive science , cognitive psychology , communication , linguistics , acoustics , neuroscience , philosophy , physics
This study considers the role of different cognitive units in sound change: phonemes , contextual variants and words . We examine /u/‐fronting and /j/‐dropping in data from three generations of Derby English speakers. We analyze dynamic formant data and auditory judgments, using mixed effects regression methods, including generalized additive mixed models ( GAMM s). /u/‐fronting is reaching its end‐point, showing complex conditioning by context and a frequency effect that weakens over time. /j/‐dropping is declining, with low‐frequency words showing more innovative variants with /j/ than high‐frequency words. The two processes interact: words with variable /j/‐dropping ( new ) exhibit more fronting than words that never have /j/ ( noodle ) even when the /j/ is deleted. These results support models of change that rely on phonetically detailed representations for both word‐ and sound‐level cognitive units.