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The Structure of Multiple Cues to Stop Categorization and Its Implications for Sound Change

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The structure of multiple cues to stop categorization and its implications for sound change Hye-Young Bang Department of Linguistics McGill University, Canada October 2017 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment for the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy ©Hye-Young Bang 2017 Abstract The central goal of this dissertation is to understand how multiple acoustic cues that signal phonetic contrasts are structured across linguistic and socio-linguistic factors, and what elements in these structures contribute to a long-term change in pronunciation norms in a speech community. The acoustic cues this dissertation focuses on are VOT and f0 which covary as cues to stop voicing categorization. The covariation of these cues is of particular interest because it is related to a cross-linguistically common type of sound change called ‘transphonologization’, where the relative importance of the cues that signal a set of phonetic categories changes over time. There are many questions that remain unresolved regarding acoustic cue covariation in speech production, including: (1) what is the mechanism and path of transphonolo- gization; (2) which aspects of the structure of cue covariation are language-independent, and which uniquely appear during sound change? This dissertation addresses these two questions in two studies, using large datasets from spoken corpora of three languages. Study 1 examines how transphonologization from VOT to f0 originates, how it prop- agates, and what consequences the change has for other aspects of the sound system of the language undergoing change. This question was examined using a dataset from a large apparent-time corpus of Seoul Korean (the NIKL corpus). The time-course of change in VOT and f0 was examined focusing on linguistic (word frequency and vowel height) and social (speakers’ age and gender) factors. The results showed a consistent trade-off between cues across talkers and contexts, and that the shift in cue primacy is more advanced in younger females’ speech and in the linguistic conditions where the VOT contrast is more reduced (high frequency words and before non-high vowels). These findings suggest that VOT reduction and f0 enhancement are spreading in parallel across speakers and the language in an adaptive manner, driven by a combination of production bias in one dimension (VOT) and adaptive expansion in another (f0). Study 2, building on the results of Study 1, sought to better describe how linguistic and social variables structure cue covariation across languages. It further aimed to identify aspects of cue covariation that are unique to languages undergoing change, by comparing Seoul Korean with two languages that are not undergoing transphonologization, English and German. The analysis examined corpus data from the three languages, focusing on two linguistic factors (word frequency and vowel height) one social factor (gender), and variation across individual speakers, and their effects on the relative use of VOT and f0 in signalling stop voicing categories. Regression models captured the effects of the linguistic and social factors, and cue use (or ‘weights’) for each individual was quantified using several methods: Cohen’s D, linear discriminant analyses, and support vector machines. For German and English, in high-frequency words and before non-high vowels, one cue is 1 consistently used less than the other cue, reducing total cue informativity for stop voicing contrasts. Interestingly, these are the same conditions where transphonologization in Seoul Korean is more advanced. The results for gender and individual speakers, on the other hand, showed consistent cue trade-offs in all languages. Taken together, the results from these two studies show that the cue trade-offs across linguistic conditions, observed only during the change in Seoul Korean, may have initiated to compensate for reduction in ‘cue informativity’ to avoid contrast merger, a pattern which is likely unique to transphonologization. On the other hand, the consistent cue trade-offs across speakers and gender in all three languages suggest that speakers have a goal of constant total cue informativity, while maintaining socially conditioned stylistic variation. The resulting structured variability across speakers may further serve as a catalyst to sound change, and change may be propagating by strengthening these existing structures. Broadly speaking, the findings provide evidence that variability in speech is not random but structured in multiple dimensions across contexts and talkers. This structure potentially reduces the variability that listeners must cope with in real-time processing and helps us understand how sound change occurs over generations. 2 Résumé Cette thèse a comme objectif principal d’éclaircir (a) comment sont structurés les multi- ples indices acoustiques qui signalent les contrastes phonétiques, une structure qui reflète des facteurs linguistiques et sociolinguistiques, et (b) quels éléments de ces structures contribuent aux changements à long terme des normes de prononciation dans une com- munauté linguistique. Les indices acoustiques sur lesquels se focalise cette thèse sont le délai d’établissement du voisement (DEV) et la fréquence fondamentale (f0), qui sont des indices covariantes permettant de classer les plosives. La covariation de ces indices est d’un intérêt particulier car elle est liée à un type de changement de son commun nommé la ‘transphonologisation’, où l’importance relative des indices acoustiques change au cours du temps. Il y a beaucoup de questions non résolues en ce qui concerne la covariation des indices acoustiques dans la production de la parole, y compris: (1) quels sont le mécanisme et le chemin de transphonologisation; et (2) quels aspects structurels de cette covariation des indices ne sont pas uniques à une langue donnée et quels aspects structurels ne sont présents que lors des changements de son? Cette thèse aborde ces deux questions dans le cadre de deux études à grande échelle, pour lesquelles les données ont été extraites de corpus parlés de trois langues. La première étude examine comment a lieu la transphonologisation du DEV à la f0, comment ce phénomène se propage et quelles sont les conséquences du changement sur d’autres aspects du système phonologique de la langue. Cette question a été abordée grâce à des données du changement en temps apparent provenant d’un corpus de coréen de Séoul (le corpus NIKL). La chronologie du changement de DEV et de f0 a été examinée en se concentrant sur les facteurs linguistiques (la fréquence des mots et la hauteur des voyelles) et sociaux (l’âge et le sexe des locuteurs). Les résultats ont démontré d’abord qu’il existe un compromis entre les indices acoustique selon le locuteur et le contexte et ensuite que le changement de primauté des indices est plus avancé dans le parler des jeunes femmes et dans les conditions linguistiques où le contraste du DEV est réduit (dans les mots à haute fréquence et devant les voyelles non hautes). Ces résultats suggèrent que la réduction du DEV et le renforcement de la f0 se propagent en parallèle de manière adaptative entre les locuteurs et la langue, le tout motivé par un biais de production dans une dimension (le DEV) et l’expansion adaptative dans une autre (la f0). La deuxième étude, s’appuyant sur les résultats de la première, a cherché à mieux décrire comment les facteurs sociaux et linguistiques sont impliqués dans la structure de la covariation des indices dans les langues. En outre, visant à identifier les aspects de la covariation des indices qui sont propres aux langues en changement, la deuxième étude offre une comparaison entre le coréen de Séoul et deux langues qui ne sont pas 3 en cours de transphonologisation, soit l’anglais et l’allemand. L’analyse a examiné des données de corpus pour les trois langues, se focalisant principalement sur deux facteurs linguistiques (la fréquence des mots et la hauteur des voyelles), sur un facteur social (le sexe) et sur la variation entre les locuteurs individuels, ainsi que les effets de cette variation individuelle sur l’utilisation relative du DEV et de la f0 dans la signalisation des groupes de plosives. Nos modèles de régression ont estimé l’importance des facteurs linguistiques et sociaux. De plus, l’emploi des indices acoustiques (ce que l’on nomme également le «poids») pour chaque locuteur a été quantifié de plusieurs façons: le D de Cohen, des analyses de discriminantes linéaires et des machines à vecteurs de support. En allemand et en anglais, un indice acoustique est systématiquement moins utilisé dans les mots à haute fréquence et devant les voyelles non hautes, réduisant ainsi la quantité d’information offerte par cet indice pour ce qui est des contrastes entre les plosives. De plus, ce sont les mêmes conditions où la transphonologisation en coréen de Séoul est la plus avancée. Les résultats pour les sexes et pour les individus, par contre, ont démontré qu’il existe des corrélations systématiques dans toutes les langues. Pris dans son ensemble, les résultats de ces deux études démontrent que le compromis d’importance relative des indices acoustiques associé aux contexte linguistique, observé uniquement en coréen de Séoul Coréen où l’on retrouve la transphonologisation, aurait pu s’instaurer pour contrer la réduction de « l’informativité » des indices pour éviter la perte de contraste, une tendence qui est probablement unique aux cas de transphonologi- sation. Cependant, les changements de l’importance des indices acoustiques selon le sexe et l’individu sont systématiques dans les trois langues, ce qui suggère que les locuteurs ont un but partagé par rapport à la quantité d’information linguistique qu’ils souhait- ent transmettre tout en produisant des variantes stylistiques socialement conditionnées. La variabilité structurée entre les locuteurs peut également servir de catalyseur pour la transphonologisation et ce changement peut se propager en renforçant ces structures ex- istantes. De façon générale, les résultats démontrent que la variabilité linguistique n’est pas aléatoire, mais qu’elle est plutôt structurée en plusieurs dimensions selon le contexte et le locuteur.
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