Yuta Tatsumi (Meikai University)
Atsushi Oho (Otaru University of Commerce)
Hijo Kang (Chonnam National University)
Motivations for Phonological Dissimilation: Cognitive vs. Articulatory Perspectives
Abstract:
Dissimilation is less frequent than assimilation, yet it is a well-documented phenomenon observed in historical change, synchronic alternation, and lexical constraints. Cognitive processes are widely cited as the primary driver of dissimilation. For instance, Ohala (1992) argues that dissimilation stems from listener hypercorrection: when listeners perceive similar acoustic signals in proximity, they misattribute them to coarticulatory effects and compensate for them in the phonological representation, which ultimately leads to dissimilation. While this cognitive account is broadly accepted (Kiparsky 2003; Blevins 2013; Frisch et al. 2004, among others), articulatory motivations have more recently been proposed (Walter 2007; Svantesson & Karlsson 2012; Begus 2016). This alternative view suggests that because the repetition of similar segments is articulatorily effortful, one of the segments may undergo reduction. In this presentation, I evaluate these two perspectives through experimental investigation. Drawing on production and perception experiments involving Korean stops and fricatives, I demonstrate that while there is little evidence for articulatory motivations, perception data reveals a form of ‘repetition deafness,’ suggesting a cognitive bias toward avoiding repetition.
Haruo Kubozono (NINJAL)