Neutralization and homophony avoidance in phonological learning.

Area of Science:

• Psycholinguistics
• Phonology
• Language Acquisition

Background:

• Homophony avoidance is theorized to constrain language change by preventing phonological neutralization.
• Prior research primarily examined historical linguistics and attested vs. unattested changes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the role of the language learner in homophony avoidance.
• To determine if learners are less likely to acquire phonological rules that increase homophony.

Main Methods:

• Utilized an artificial language learning paradigm.
• Exposed participants to novel phonological rules and lexical items.
• Compared acquisition rates of neutralizing vs. non-neutralizing rules.

Main Results:

• Learners showed reduced acquisition of phonological rules that created homophones among learned words.
• This effect was specific to rules increasing homophony, not general phonological change.
• Evidence suggests integrated lexical and phonological learning.

Conclusions:

• Language learners exhibit a bias against phonological patterns resulting in homophony.
• This learner bias may contribute to homophony avoidance in natural language change.
• Lexical and phonological learning are closely interconnected.