Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-12T20:34:17.676Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Base transparency in suprasegmental changes: Ongoing changes in Japanese and English

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Noriko Hattori
Noriko Hattori
Affiliation:
Mie University
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This article deals with suprasegmental changes in progress in Japanese and English and demonstrates that the same kind of mechanism is in operation. Data on realtime changes in pitch accent, collected by comparing earlier editions of Japanese pronouncing dictionaries with recent editions, are examined. Analysis of data from present-day speech provides supplementary data on innovative accent. Two types of principle for accent change are proposed: the demand for paradigm coherence and the demand for canonical accent pattern. In the case of nouns derived from adjectives, the two appear to be in conflict. It is suggested that in Japanese the demand for paradigm coherence is the stronger principle. Similar kinds of conflict between two possible types of change are observed in ongoing stress changes in English. It is shown that base (or stem) transparency is a major factor in determining the directionality of accent change.

Type
Research Article
Information
Language Variation and Change , Volume 10 , Issue 2 , July 1998 , pp. 85 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1998

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

Akinaga, Kazue. (1981). Tokyo akusento no hoosoku ni tsuite [On rules of Tokyo accent]. Appendix to Kindaichi, H. (Ed.), Meikai nihongo akusento jiten. Tokyo: Sanseido. 1–88.Google Scholar
Akinaga, Kazue. (1985). Kyootsuugo no akusento [Accent of Standard Japanese]. Appendix to NHK (Ed.), Nihongo hatsuon akusento jiten. Tokyo: NHK. 70–116.Google Scholar
Bauer, Laurie. (1994). Watching English change: An introduction to the study of linguistic change in standard Englishes in the twentieth century. London: Longman.Google Scholar
Bunkachoo, (Ed.). (1971). Onsei to onsei kyooiku [Sounds and teaching of Japanese pronunciation]. Tokyo: Ohkurashoo.Google Scholar
Chambers, J. K. (1995). Sociolinguistic theory: Linguistic variation and its social significance. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Haraguchi, Shosuke. (1977). The tone pattern of Japanese: An autosegmental theory of tonology. Tokyo: Kaitakusha.Google Scholar
Hattori, Noriko. (1991). Mechanisms of word accent change: Innovations in Standard Japanese. Tokyo: Shinozaki Shorin.Google Scholar
Hirayama, Teruo. (1968). Nihon no hogen [Dialects in Japan]. Tokyo: Kodansha.Google Scholar
Hock, Hans Heinrich. (1986). Principles of historical linguistics. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
The Japan Foundation. (1981). Hatsuon [Pronunciation]. Tokyo: Bonjinsha.Google Scholar
Jeffers, Robert J., & Lehiste, Ilse. (1979). Principles and methods for historical linguistics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Jones, Daniel. (1917). An English pronouncing dictionary. London: J. M. Dent.Google Scholar
Jones, Daniel. (1947). Everyman's English pronouncing dictionary (8th ed.). London: J. M. Dent.Google Scholar
Jones, Daniel. (1956). Everyman's English pronouncing dictionary (11th ed.). London: J. M. Dent.Google Scholar
Jones, Daniel, Gimson, A. C., & Ramsaran, Susan. (1988). Everyman's English pronouncing dictionary (14th ed.). London: J. M. Dent.Google Scholar
Kindaichi, Haruhiko (Ed.). (1966, 1981). Meikai nihongo akusento jiten [Explanatory Japanese accent dictionary]. Tokyo: Sanseido.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul. (1971). Historical linguistics. Reprinted in P. Kiparsky (1982). 57–80.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul. (1972). Explanation in phonology. Reprinted in P. Kiparsky (1982). 81–118.Google Scholar
Kiparsky, Paul. (1982). Explanation in phonology. Dordrecht: Foris.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Labov, William. (1972). Sociolinguistic patterns. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Labov, William. (1994). Principles of linguistic change. Volume 1: Internal factors. Oxford: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Lass, Roger. (1987). The shape of English: Structure and history. London: J. M. Dent & Sons.Google Scholar
Murray, James H., Bradley, Henry, Craigie, W. A., & Onions, C. T. (Eds.). (1933). The Oxford English dictionary. Oxford: Clarendon. First published 1884–1928.Google Scholar
Nakao, Toshio. (1984). On Late Middle English word stress. In Blake, N. F. & Jones, Charles (Eds.), English historical linguistics: Studies in development. Sheffield: Centre for English Cultural Tradition and Language, University of Sheffield. 87–100.Google Scholar
Nakao, Toshio. (1985). Oninshi [English historical phonology]. Tokyo: Taishukan.Google Scholar
Nakao, Toshio. (1996). Onin ni okeru tsuujiteki fuhen: Saishoo henka no genri [Diachronic universals in phonology: The minimality principle of change]. Tokyo: Liber Press.Google Scholar
NHK (Ed.). (1943). Nihongo akusento jiten [Japanese accent dictionary]. Tokyo: NHK [Japanese Broadcasting Corporation].Google Scholar
NHK (Ed.). (1966). Nihongo hatsuon akusento jiten [Dictionary of Japanese pronunciation and accent], Tokyo: NHK.Google Scholar
NHK (Ed.). (1985). Nihongo hatsuon akusento jiten [Dictionary of Japanese pronunciation and accent] (revised new edition). Tokyo: NHK.Google Scholar
Simpson, J. A., & Weiner, E. S. C. (Eds.). (1989). The Oxford English dictionary (2nd ed.). Oxford: Clarendon.Google Scholar
Tashiro, Kohji. (1975). Utsukushii nihongo no hatsuon [Beautiful pronunciation of Japanese]. Osaka: Sohgensha.Google Scholar
Yamada, Bimyoo. (1893). Nippon dai jisho [Grand dictionary of Japanese]. Tokyo: Meihodo. Reprinted in 1978, Tokyo: Nobel.Google Scholar