Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-n9wrp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-16T11:57:14.386Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The time variable in phonological change1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Matthew Chen  and
Hsin-I Hsieh
Matthew Chen
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley
Hsin-I Hsieh
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, University of California, Berkeley
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

One of the perennial problems in diachronic linguistics is how to reconcile, on the one hand, the Neogrammarian postulate of sound laws operating without exception, and, on the other hand, the embarrassingly numerous irregularities we observe in many languages. On most occasions linguists have attempted to solve the problem by positing interdialectal borrowing or analogical levelling and have largely overlooked the possibility of the gradual diffusion of phonological changes across the lexicon. As a result of the lexical gradualness of sound changes, exceptions may be created either through the incompletion of a sound change, or owing to the conflict of two sound changes overlapping along the time dimension. It is the latter concept that we will attempt to elaborate and illustrate with two sets of data, both from Peking dialect. We have chosen Chinese as a case study for an obvious reason: it is possible in the case of Chinese, like few other cases, to follow sound changes step by step through the phonological dictionaries, rhyme charts and other records compiled at various stages of history. The columns on Tables 1 and 2 contain information taken from the various datable phonological dictionaries.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , March 1971 , pp. 1 - 13
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Chafe, Wallace L. (1968). The ordering of phonological rules. IJAL 34. 115–136.Google Scholar
Chen, Matthew (forthcoming). The time dimension: contribution toward a theory of sound change (prepublication version to appear in Project on Linguistic Analysis, University of California, Berkeley.)Google Scholar
Chen, Matthew & Wang, William S- Y. (1970). Diachronie phonology and lexical diffusion. Paper presented at the Kentucky Conference on Foreign Languages, Lexington, Kentucky, 04 1970.Google Scholar
Cheng, Chin-chuan & Wang, William S- Y. Phonological change of Middle Chinese initials. To appear in Qīng-huá Xué-bào.Google Scholar
Hashimoto, Mantaro J. (1969a). Internal evidence for Ancient palatal endings in Mandarin. Unicorn 4. 32–35.Google Scholar
Hashimoto, Mantaro J. (1969b). Nasal stop endings in Ancient Chinese. Unicorn 5. 29–53.Google Scholar
Hockett, Charles F. (1965). Sound change. Lg 41. 185–205.Google Scholar
Karlgren, Bernhard (1954). Compendium of phonetics in Ancient and Archaic Chinese. The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm, Bulletin No. 26.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul (1968). Linguistic universals and linguistic change. In Bach, Emmon & Harms, Robert T. (eds.) Universals in linguistic theory, 170–202. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.Google Scholar
Lehmann, W. P. & Malkiel, Yakov (eds.) (1968). Directions for historical linguistics: a symposium. Austin:University of Texas press.Google Scholar
Malkiel, Yakov (1968). The inflectional paradigm as an occasional determinant of sound change. In Lehmann, W. P. and Malkiel, Yakov (eds.), Directions for historical linguistics: a symposium, 21–64.Google Scholar
Martinet, André (1955). Economie des changements phonétiques. Berne:A. Francke.Google Scholar
Meillet, A. (1925). Linguistique historique et linguistique générale vols. I–II. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Sapir, Edward (1921). Language. New York:Harcourt, Brace & World.Google Scholar
Sommerfelt, Alf. (1962). Diachronic and synchronic aspects of language. The Hague:Mouton.Google Scholar
Stimson, Hugh M. (1962). Ancient Chinese p, t, k endings in the Peking dialect. Lg 38. 376–384.Google Scholar
Tesnière, Lucien (1939). Phonologie et mélange de langues. TCLP 8. 83–93. (reprinted in Hamp, E. P., Householder, F. W. and Austerlitz, R. (eds.), (1966). Readings in linguistics, II. University of Chicago Press. 124–132).Google Scholar
Wang, William S- Y. (1968). On reconstructing early Mandarin. Monthly Internal Memorandum, October 1969, Phonology Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley.Google Scholar
Wang, William S- Y. (1969). Competing changes as a cause of residue. Lg 45. 9–25.Google Scholar
Weinreich, Uriel, Labov, William & Herzog, Marvin I. (1968). Empirical foundations for a theory of language change. In Lehmann, W. P. and Malkiel, Yakov (eds.), Directions for historical linguistics: a symposium, 95–185.Google Scholar