Keywords

frequency effects, form frequency, lemma frequency, Spanish /s/, Colombian Spanish, activation state

Abstract

Research has shown that frequency conditions the variable realization of sounds. However, the literature has not addressed whether the frequency of the individual word forms, or form frequency, has a larger conditioning effect than the combined frequencies of the members of the paradigm to which the forms belong, or lemma frequency. Monofactorial correlation tests and monofactorial and multifactorial linear regression analyses are performed on 2,734 tokens of Spanish /s/ in sociolinguistic interviews conducted in Cali and Barranquilla, Colombia. Two findings are highlighted: (1) frequency is only significant in the variety of Spanish that has low overall rates of /s/ reduction, Cali, and (2) form frequency is more influential than lemma frequency.

Original Publication Citation

Brown, Earl K., Michael S. Gradoville & Richard J. File-Muriel. (2014). "The variable effect of form and lemma frequencies on phonetic variation: Evidence from /s/ realization in two varieties of Colombian Spanish." Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, 10(2): 213-241.

Document Type

Peer-Reviewed Article

Publication Date

2014

Publisher

De Gruyter Mouton

Language

English

College

Humanities

Department

Linguistics

University Standing at Time of Publication

Associate Professor

Included in

Linguistics Commons

Share

COinS