Pertinacity in phonology: Synchrony, diachrony, processing, modelling
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
Department Name: Linguistics Philology and Phonetics
Abstract
A standard belief through centuries of linguistic research has been that phonological change is commonplace and pervasive.
Syntax has been claimed by some to be inert, changing only as a consequence of phonological or semantic change. This project takes an unusual and challenging view: Phonology is pertinacious, suggesting that phonological change has severe restrictions. The principle of Pertinacity (two types) states:
Pertinacity A: The output forms may look different from the donor language, but the native underlying pattern persists.
Pertinacity B: The output forms may look similar, but the underlying phonological grammar would have changed.
DISTINCTIVENESS of the proposal: As in the PI's earlier work, setting it apart from more narrowly departmentalised specialist approaches, classical theoretical and historical research will be combined with psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic experimentation, and computational modelling to shed light on central issues of linguistic change and stability, diversity and uniformity.
To examine the principle of Pertinacity, we will investigate similar phonological processes, both internal (regular phonological rules and constraints) and external (loans via language contact), across three language families (West & North Germanic and Indo-Aryan).
Syntax has been claimed by some to be inert, changing only as a consequence of phonological or semantic change. This project takes an unusual and challenging view: Phonology is pertinacious, suggesting that phonological change has severe restrictions. The principle of Pertinacity (two types) states:
Pertinacity A: The output forms may look different from the donor language, but the native underlying pattern persists.
Pertinacity B: The output forms may look similar, but the underlying phonological grammar would have changed.
DISTINCTIVENESS of the proposal: As in the PI's earlier work, setting it apart from more narrowly departmentalised specialist approaches, classical theoretical and historical research will be combined with psycholinguistic and neurolinguistic experimentation, and computational modelling to shed light on central issues of linguistic change and stability, diversity and uniformity.
To examine the principle of Pertinacity, we will investigate similar phonological processes, both internal (regular phonological rules and constraints) and external (loans via language contact), across three language families (West & North Germanic and Indo-Aryan).
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Aditi Lahiri (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Althaus N
(2024)
Coronal underspecification as an emerging property in the development of speech processing.
in Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition
Booth J
(2023)
Open syllable lengthening and diphthongisation in Upper Middle High German: evidence from verse
in The Journal of Comparative Germanic Linguistics
Booth J
(2023)
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics
Fritz I
(2023)
Shared Loanword Recognition in German-English Bilinguals: The Role of Metrical Phonology.
in Journal of cognitive neuroscience
| Description | Royal Society Panel Briefing on Horizon Europe: Research and discovery showcase |
| Geographic Reach | Europe |
| Policy Influence Type | Contribution to a national consultation/review |
| Impact | Now that the UK's association to the Horizon Europe research programme has been finalised, steps forward are being taken to celebrate international collaboration which allow us to continue to build on decades of collaborative research with our European partners and step up our global collaborations too to keep us as a nation at the forefront of science and innovation. |
| URL | https://researchbriefings.files.parliament.uk/documents/CBP-9925/CBP-9925.pdf |
| Description | 'What Doesn't Change: Pertinacity and Language Change and Processing' |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | The object of Academia Europaea is the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social, and political sciences, mathematics, medicine, and all branches of natural and technological sciences anywhere in the world for the public benefit and for the advancement of the education of the public of all ages. The aim of the Academy is to promote European research, advise governments and international organisations in scientific matters, and further interdisciplinary and international research. Invited talk given "What Doesn't Change: Pertinacity and Language Change and Processing" |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.ae-info.org/ae/Member/Lahiri_Aditi |
| Description | Alan Turing Institute Roundtable: Evaluating different pedagogic approaches for delivering data science education |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Policymakers/politicians |
| Results and Impact | Dr. Hilary Wynne was invited to participate in an interactive forum where educators from various institutions and backgrounds engaged in open discussions, exchange best practices, and consider new approaches for teaching data science. Experiences collated as part of the roundtable are summarised for all data science educators on different teaching methods. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.turing.ac.uk/skills-policy-awards-20232024 |
| Description | India's International Movement to Unite Nations |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A formal working group, expert panel or dialogue |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Undergraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Professor Aditi Lahiri gave an Invited talk on 'Language and Linguistics' to India's international Movement to Unite Nations, Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, 28th January 2024. India's International Movement to Unite Nations (IIMUN) is a youth organisation comprising 26,000 young organisers who put together student conferences in 220 cities and 35 countries, and work with over 7,500 schools impacting 10 million students annually. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1lY5wrORqY&ab_channel=IIMUN |
| Description | Keynote: International Conference for Historical Linguistics 26 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Professor Aditi Lahiri gave a keynote talk at the International Conference for Historical Linguistics 26, Heidelberg 4th September 2023 entitled 'Phonological Grammars: Pertinacious Constraints on Change' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.slav.uni-heidelberg.de/forschung/tagungen/ichl26/speakers.html |
| Description | LSA Summer Institute: Invited Lecture |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Professor Aditi Lahiri was nvited as the Hermann & Klara H. Collitz Professor to give the Collitz Lecture at the LSA Summer Institute, UMass (Amherst) 30th June 2023: 'Why Phonology? Pertinacious Constraints on Language Change and Processing'. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://www.linguisticsociety.org/content/umass-amherst-selected-host-2023-linguistic-institute |
| Description | Podcast with Audemic, Inc: Psycholinguistic Secrets: The Mysterious Workings of Words and the Mind. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Dr Hilary Wynne gave a two-part podcast interview on The Research Beat, a biweekly podcast bringing unique stories and powerful insights from the incredible world of research. Topics included what linguistics is, the search for psycholinguistic evidence, representation in linguistic experiments, AI in language, and doing research in the Humanities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2023 |
| URL | https://audemic.io/blog/hilary-wynne-podcast/ |
| Description | School Visit (Cheney) |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an open day or visit at my research institution |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Project staff contributed to a special afternoon of events to engage 200-300 students and the general public at the Amazing Brain Festival at Cheney Secondary School, Oxford UK. A team of 3 members led by Dr. Hilary Wynne developed 3 demonstrations to engage students with different aspects of language and the brain: masked priming experiments, hands-on demonstration of electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment, and sentence processing experiments. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| URL | https://www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/24124032.oxford-school-hold-brain-themed-interactive-exhibition/ |
| Description | Talk: Foreign Language Teaching |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | Universität Konstanz: Invited Workshop on 'English Phonology and Pronunciation Teaching' at Universität Konstanz, 12th January 2024 |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |
| Description | Universiteit Leiden |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Professor Aditi Lahiri gave an invited talk at the Universiteit Leiden on 15th February 2024: 'Wherefore Phonology?' |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2024 |