Emmerich Kelih (Graz) Phoneme-Inventory (Size) – Word length: Some theoretical thoughts and empirical findings • Institut für Slawistik, Universität Graz • http://www-gewi.uni-graz.at/quanta/ [Graz-project on Quantitative Textanalysis] • http://www-gewi.uni-graz.at/staff/kelih/ [[email protected]]
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Emmerich Kelih
(Graz)
Phoneme-Inventory (Size) – Word length:
Some theoretical thoughts and empirical findings
• Institut für Slawistik, Universität Graz
• http://www-gewi.uni-graz.at/quanta/ [Graz-project on Quantitative Textanalysis]
1. linguistic aspects (theory and empirical problems)
2. system-based considerations
3. step by step: phoneme-inventory and phonotactics
4. empirical validation
5. general discussion
Is there a systematic relation between the
phoneme inventory (size) and the mean word lenght?
Starting point: “that as the number of contrastive segments [S] in a language increases, the average length of a word [L] will decrease“. (Nettle1995: 359).
22 languages (african and others)
R² = 0.69
... Some open questions!
problems of the relationship phoneme-inventory – word length:
� determination of the phoneme inventory is theory-driven
� segment inventory vs. phoneme inventory?
� determination of the level: word/wordform/lexem
� definition of the word, lexem ...
� measuring unit of the word length (phoneme, grapheme, syllable, morpheme)
� on which level the word length is determined?
� Developing a new synergetic control cycle:
Missing relations:
1. Phoneme inventory ���� Phoneme distribution (phonotactics)
2. Phoneme inventory ���� Syllable length
3. Phoneme inventory ���� Syllable structure
4. Phoneme inventory ���� Morpheme length
5. Phoneme Inventory ���� Word length
1. Phoneme inventory (I) (number of vowels and consonants)
2. Set of phoneme combinations (R) (the finite set of phoneme combinations, whichare allowed by the language system)
On which level can we obtain phonem-combinations
a. on the paradigmatic level ? = language system
b. on the syntagmatic level ? = the realization in concrete texts
What is the base unit for obtainig phoneme combinations?
unit word
morphemesyllable
example R R (abs.)/Preporot/ PR, RE, EP, PO, OR, RO, OT 7/Pre-porot/ PR, RE, PO, OR, RO, OT, 6/Pre-po-rot/ PR, RE, PO, RO, OT 5
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26a e i o u v j r l m n p b f t d c s z š ž č dž k g h
theoretical possible number of phoneme combination
I² = 676
But only 521 phonemecombinations (R) are
„allowed“ by the system
x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x x 25x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x x 25x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x x 25x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x x 25x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x x 25x x - x x - x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x x 23x x - x x x - x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 24x x - x x x x - x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x x 23x x - x x x x x - x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 24x x - x x x x x x - x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x - 22x x - x x x x x x x - x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x 24x x x x x - x x x - x - - x x - x x x x - x - x - x 18x x x x x x x x x x x - - - - x - - x - x - - - x - 15x x x x x - x x x x x - - - x - x x - - - x - x - - 15x x x x x x x x x x x x - x - - x x - - - x - x - x 18x x x x x x x x x x x - x - - - - - x x x - - - x - 16x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x - - x - - - - - x - x 17x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x x x - - x - x - x - x 20x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x - x x - - - x - 20x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x - x - - - - x - x - x 18x x x x x x x x x x x - x - - x - - - - - - - x x - 15x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x - x x - - - - - x - - 17x x x x x x - x - - x - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 8x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x - x x x x - x - - - x 20x x x x x x x x x x x x x x - x x - x x - x - - - x 20x x x x x x x x x x x x - - x x x x - x - x - x - - 19
521
Restrictions within language systems
- not all geminates (VV, CC) are possible
- the combination of voiced and voiceless consonants is prohibited
- ...
How can we model the relation between the phoneme-inventory (I) and phoneme combinations (R) in typologically different languages?
� not all cells (=I)² of the distribution matrix are filled out