Diachronic dynamics of Middle English phonotactics provide evidence for analogy effects among lexical and morphonotactic consonant clusters

Consonant clusters that rarely occur lexically (i.e. within morphemes) may function as complexity markers when they span a morpheme boundary, i.e. when they occur morphonotactically. In this study we observe patterns in the diachronic dynamics of Middle English which hint at mutually beneficial effe...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published inPapers in Historical Phonology Vol. 1; pp. 50 - 75
Main Authors Baumann, Andreas, Ritt, Nikolaus, Prömer, Christina
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published University of Edinburgh 30.11.2016
Online AccessGet full text

Cover

More Information
Summary:Consonant clusters that rarely occur lexically (i.e. within morphemes) may function as complexity markers when they span a morpheme boundary, i.e. when they occur morphonotactically. In this study we observe patterns in the diachronic dynamics of Middle English which hint at mutually beneficial effects between morphonotactic and lexical clusters. We suggest that the patterns revealed can be explained by frequency-based analogy effects in language acquisition.
ISSN:2399-6714
2399-6714
DOI:10.2218/pihph.1.2016.1693