Andrew Radford - Linguistics An Introduction [Second Edition]

(1998), Chambers (2002), Wolfram and Schilling-Estes (2005) and Bayley and Lucas (2007). Other books tend to concentrate on specific social factors. For instance, L. Milroy (1987) and J. Milroy (1992) are the classic introductions to variation and social networks (see also L. Milroy’s chapter in Chambers, Trudgill and Schilling-Estes 2002), and both Bell (1984) and Coupland (1984, 2007) have been particularly influential in the study of stylistic variation. The investigation of Jocks and Burnouts in a Detroit High School can be found in Eckert (2000).

Meyerhoff (2002) provides a useful overview of work on communities of practice, and Bucholtz (1999) is an interesting case study. Milroy and Gordon (2002) is an excellent introduction to the methods of data collection and analysis in variation studies, as is Tagliamonte (2006), which very usefully also covers statistical methods in variation studies. The Bradford study mentioned in section 3 is reported in Petyt (1985), and the work on (ing) in Norwich is from Trudgill (1974). Research on ethnic variation in New Zealand English can be found in Holmes (1997). The (T) and -t/-d deletion studies are by Wolfram (1991), and the research on Farsi vowel assimilation is outlined in greater detail in Hudson (1996). Labov (1972,

1994) discusses the now very famous research in the New York department stores, and the research on workers in Spain is in Holmquist (1985).

Good introductions to sound change (approached exclusively from the histor-

ical linguistic perspective) can be found in McMahon (1994) and Trask (1996).

Beard (2004) and Aitchison (1991) are both very introductory accounts of change.

Chambers (2002) offers a sociolinguistic approach to language change. At a more advanced level, Chambers, Trudgill and Schilling-Estes (2002) provides a state-of-the-art account of the major themes of sociolinguistic research on change. An introductory account of the Northern Cities Vowel Shift is presented by Wolfram and Schilling-Estes (2005), and much more detailed discussions of chain shifts, mergers, splits and the Neogrammarian–Lexical Diffusion argument can be found in Labov (1994). The research on intonation change referred to in section 4 is from 122

Further reading and references

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Britain (1998). The example of Dutch and Belgian sound change can be found in van de Velde, van Hout and Gerritsen (1996).

The topics introduced in section 5 are dealt with in more detail in Spencer (1996). Other introductions include Davenport and Hannahs (1998), Gussenhoven and Jacobs (1998) and Roca and Johnson (1999). Yavas (2006) provides a very useful overview of the issues with the added perspective of first and second language acquisition. Discussions of Optimality Theory can be found in textbooks such as Roca and Johnson (1999). Optimality Theory has been applied to all other aspects of linguistics and an introduction to the approach with applications to syntax, morphology and phonology can be found in Archangeli and Langendoen

(1997). A detailed textbook survey of Optimality Theory and English phonology is given in Hammond (1999) and a good general survey appears in Kager (1999).

The most influential work on generative child phonology (section 6) is Smith’s (1973) diary study of his son, Amahl, from the age of two to four. The technical analysis is written in a framework which is now somewhat out of date (that of Chomsky and Halle 1968), but Smith provides a useful overview of his work in a less technical form at the beginning of the book, and it is still well worth reading. There is no up-to-date, linguistically based introduction to child phonology. Vihman (1994) provides a more psychologically oriented overview of the topic. Chapter 2 of Goodluck (1991) gives a brief summary of some of the issues, including the use of features in child phonology, and Ingram (1989) gives a useful discussion of the nature of children’s phonological representations. A recent general introduction to the issues can be found in Lust (2006, chapter 8), while Ferguson, Menn and Stoel-Gammon (1992) is an interesting collection of articles giving an overview of a good many issues.

The linguistic justification for the dual-lexicon model presented here is given in Spencer (1986), though this is rather too technical for beginners. A gentler introduction to the model can be found in Spencer (1988). A very readable, non-technical introduction to much of the material covered here is provided by Smith (1989,

chapters 4 and 8).

Further information about speech perception and production (section 7) can be found in almost any introduction to psycholinguistics. More advanced information can be found in texts such as Borden and Harris (1984). The earliest work reporting categorical perception of speech sounds by non-humans (chinchillas) is reported in Kuhl and Miller (1975). For further discussion of what speech errors can tell us about speech production, see Levelt (1989, chapter 9). There are several interesting collections of articles on speech errors, including Fromkin (1973, 1980).

PA RT I I

Words

8

Introduction

All languages have words, and words are probably the most accessible linguistic units to the layman. As part I has amply demonstrated, in order to get a sense of the sounds which are used in an utterance, a good deal of analysis is required, and most speakers of a language cannot easily identify these sounds. Similarly, sentences do not have the same intuitive immediacy as words, an observation that probably owes much to the fact that when we speak, we often employ sequences of words which do not make complete sentences. The following mundane dialogue

illustrates this perfectly:

(85)

speaker a: Where are you going?

speaker b: Shopping.

speaker a: What for?

speaker b: To buy some socks.

Of the utterances in (85), only the first corresponds to a complete sentence, the others being elliptical and not including information which A and B can readily supply from the context of their conversation.

Now, while it is not true to suggest that we always fully articulate the sequence of sounds which go to make up a word (see examples of elision and assimilation cited in the main introduction), it is also not true that we systematically get by with

‘word fragments’. Just imagine the difficulties we would confront if in either spoken or written text, we did indulge in such an activity: we might be faced (along with A and B) with trying to interpret (86):

(86)

speaker a: Whareying?

speaker b: Shing.

speaker a: Whor?

speaker b: Tymsos.

Despite this comfortable familiarity of the word based on our everyday experience with language, it should come as no surprise that serious consideration of words leads to intriguing questions and sometimes, when we’re lucky, answers.

Of all linguistic constructs, the word is probably closest to familiar physical objects, but, as the history of physical science has shown, beneath these everyday objects lies a world that we cannot perceive without expensive equipment and which is organised in ways which few of us can readily understand. It would be misleading to suggest that our understanding of words (or, indeed, any aspect of 127

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words

language) is as developed as natural scientists’ understanding of the physical world; but we should be ready to be surprised and to have challenged those

preconceptions which emanate from our practised acquaintance with words in

our native language.

The next four sections of this part of the book develop some of the issues which are important in understanding the nature of words from the theoretical perspective presented in our main introduction. It will be recalled that we proposed there that a grammar of a language must contain a lexicon, i.e. a listing of the words occurring in the language along with their linguistic properties. In part I, particularly section 5, we developed some ideas on the nature of the phonological information which appears in a lexical entry, one aspect of the form of a word. This focus on form will continue in sections 9, 10 and 11, where we will examine in some detail aspects of the morphological and syntactic information which must appear in lexical entries. Additionally, (most) words have one or more meanings, and section 12 raises some of the questions that arise when we consider how the semantic properties of a word might be represented in its lexical entry and what implications considerations of word meaning have for the overall organisation of the lexicon. Having introduced a set of notions for dealing with the cognitive representation of words in the lexicon, we move to the other perspectives from the introduction. The quite remarkable acquisition of words by small children is the topic of section 13, and the ways in which experimental studies might throw light on how we store words in our memory and perceive and produce them in our