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In:Columbia School Linguistics in the 21st Century
Edited by Nancy Stern, Ricardo Otheguy, Wallis Reid and Jaseleen Sackler
[Studies in Functional and Structural Linguistics 77] 2019
► pp. 281–300

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Evolutionary phonology as human behavior

 | The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY)
Published online: 2 October 2019
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https://doi.org/10.1075/sfsl.77.11ble
Abstract
In this chapter I compare Columbia School Phonology as first sketched in Diver (1974, 1979) to Evolutionary Phonology (Blevins, 2004a, 2005a, 2006a, 2008, 2009a, 2015, 2017), highlighting similarities and differences between the two approaches. Where Columbia School Phonology grazes the surface of phonological typology, Evolutionary Phonology grounds itself in extensive cross-linguistic surveys of common and rare sound patterns. Where Columbia School Phonology suggests relatively simplistic intuitive phonetic explanations for sound patterns, Evolutionary Phonology refers to detailed empirical work in distinct sub-fields of phonetics, including articulatory phonetics, aerodynamic modeling, and perceptual studies of speech. And where Columbia School Phonology proposes usage-based explanations for skewed distributions of sounds, Evolutionary Phonology suggests ways in which these are inadequate, and proposes analyses where non-phonetic factors interact in complex ways with overriding phonetic factors.
ResumenLa fonología evolutiva como comportamiento humano
En el presente trabajo comparo la Fonología de la Escuela de Columbia, según ésta quedó esbozada por Diver (1974, 1979), con la Fonología Evolutiva (Blevins, 2004a, 2005a, 2006a, 2008, 2009a, 2015, 2017), haciendo resaltar semejanzas y diferencias entre los dos enfoques. Donde la Escuela de Columbia roza la superficie de la tipología fonológica, la Fonología Evolutiva se basa en extensos sondeos de patrones fonológicos en numerosas lenguas, tanto los más comunes como los menos frecuentes. Donde la Escuela de Columbia propone simplemente explicaciones intuitivas de patrones fonológicos, la Fonología Evolutiva hace referencia a trabajos empíricos en distintas ramas de la fonética, entre ellas la fonética articulatoria, los modelos aerodinámicos y los estudios de percepción del habla. Y donde la Escuela de Columbia propone explicaciones basadas en el uso para la distribución sesgada de los sonidos, la Fonología Evolutiva señala aquellos lugares en los que estas explicaciones no resultan adecuadas, proponiendo análisis en los que factores extrafonéticos interactuan con consideraciones fonéticas más generales.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.An overview of Evolutionary Phonology
  • 3.Evolutionary Phonology and the Columbia School: “Le bon Dieu est dans le détail”
    • 3.1Segment inventories: The high frequency of coronal sounds
    • 3.2Phonotactics: Explaining Tl-gaps
    • 3.3Neutralization: Where substance matters
  • 4.Concluding remarks
  • Notes
  • References
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2023. The role of word recognition factors and lexical stress in the distribution of consonants in Spanish, English and Dutch. Journal of Linguistics 59:1 ► pp. 149 ff. DOI logo

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