Phonological and Grammatical Variation in Exemplar Models
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Joan Bybee
Abstract
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.
© 2015 by Walter de Gruyter Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Contents
- Research Articles
- Ratio Frequency: Insights into Usage Effects on Phonological Structure from Hiatus Resolution in New Mexican Spanish
- A Reanalysis of Paradigmatic Variation in the Old Spanish Imperfect
- How Pragmatically Odd! Interface Delays and Pronominal Subject Distribution in L2 Spanish
- Book Reviews
- Martínez Celdrán & Fernández Planas: Manual de fonética española: Articulaciones y sonidos del español
- State of the Discipline. Topic: First Language Acquisition
- Research on First Language Acquisition of Spanish Phonology
- Viewpoints. Topic: The Role of Language Variation in Mental Grammars
- Variation and Second Language Grammars
- Phonological and Grammatical Variation in Exemplar Models
- Syntactic Variation: The Case of Spanish and Portuguese Subjects
- The Role of Language Variation in Mental Grammars: An Optimality-Theoretic Perspective
- Dissertation Notices
- Acquiring a Variable Structure: An Interlanguage Analysis of Second- Language Mood Use in Spanish
- The Role of Perceptual Learning Style Preferences and Instructional Method in the Acquisition of L2 Spanish Vocabulary
- Doing Being Boricua: Perceptions of National Identity and the Sociolinguistic Distribution of Liquid Variables in Puerto Rican Spanish
Articles in the same Issue
- Front Matter
- Contents
- Research Articles
- Ratio Frequency: Insights into Usage Effects on Phonological Structure from Hiatus Resolution in New Mexican Spanish
- A Reanalysis of Paradigmatic Variation in the Old Spanish Imperfect
- How Pragmatically Odd! Interface Delays and Pronominal Subject Distribution in L2 Spanish
- Book Reviews
- Martínez Celdrán & Fernández Planas: Manual de fonética española: Articulaciones y sonidos del español
- State of the Discipline. Topic: First Language Acquisition
- Research on First Language Acquisition of Spanish Phonology
- Viewpoints. Topic: The Role of Language Variation in Mental Grammars
- Variation and Second Language Grammars
- Phonological and Grammatical Variation in Exemplar Models
- Syntactic Variation: The Case of Spanish and Portuguese Subjects
- The Role of Language Variation in Mental Grammars: An Optimality-Theoretic Perspective
- Dissertation Notices
- Acquiring a Variable Structure: An Interlanguage Analysis of Second- Language Mood Use in Spanish
- The Role of Perceptual Learning Style Preferences and Instructional Method in the Acquisition of L2 Spanish Vocabulary
- Doing Being Boricua: Perceptions of National Identity and the Sociolinguistic Distribution of Liquid Variables in Puerto Rican Spanish
