Ratio Frequency: Insights into Usage Effects on Phonological Structure from Hiatus Resolution in New Mexican Spanish

2008 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew C. Alba
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Analyses ◽  
Impact Structure ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
New Mexican ◽  
Hiatus Resolution ◽  
Token Frequency ◽  
Phonological Structure ◽  
Frequency Of Use ◽  
Word String

AbstractMounting evidence shows that frequency of use plays a fundamental role in shaping linguistic structure, including phonological structure (cf. Bybee 2001). Because the study of frequency effects is relatively new, our understanding of how they impact structure continues to be refined. This study explores the effects of several frequency measures on the resolution of hiatus between words in Spanish, and reveals that in addition to the traditional phonological factors, frequency is also involved. Multivariate analyses show that ratio frequency - or the frequency of a two-word string relative to that of one of the words it contains - is a better indicator than straightforward token frequency of the likelihood that the string will be processed as an autonomous unit and undergo concurrent phonological reduction. These findings build on a usage-based model of language, providing important insights into the nature of lexical storage and how this relates to linguistic variation and change.

Idiom as the intersection of conceptual and syntactic schemas

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 492-509 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANIEL SANFORD
Keyword(s):  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Token Frequency ◽  
Metaphor Theory ◽  
Idiomatic Expressions ◽  
The Status ◽  
On Line ◽  
Key Issues ◽  
Idiomatic Meaning

abstractTwo key issues in the study of idiom are the metaphorical status of idioms (whether or not underlying metaphors are active in the on-line processing of figurative idiomatic expressions) and the compositional status of idioms (whether or not the overall meaning of such expressions is analyzable from internal elements). This study addresses these questions from the perspective of emergent metaphor theory (Sanford, 2012, 2013), arguing that key properties of such expressions − idiosyncrasy of both form and meaning, the potential for idiom to be manipulated in discourse, and diachronic patterns in changes of idiomatic meaning − follow from the status of metaphorical idioms as highly entrenched instances of both conceptual and syntactic mappings. In the case of both types of schema, the interaction of type and token frequency effects predict the metaphoricity and analyzability of idioms.

The Devil in New Mexican Spanish Folklore

1949 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 123
Author(s):  
Catherine J. Hinckle
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
New Mexican ◽  
The Devil

New-Mexican Spanish Folk-Lore. III. Folk-Tales

1911 ◽  
Vol 24 (94) ◽  
pp. 397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurelio M. Espinosa
Keyword(s):  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Folk Tales ◽  
New Mexican

Construction frequency and reductive change: Diachronic and register variation in Spanish clitic climbing

1999 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 143-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rena Torres Cacoullos
Keyword(s):  
Parallel Structure ◽  
Frequency Effects ◽  
Old Spanish ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
Token Frequency

A comparison of Old Spanish and present-day Spanish data provides evidence that reductive change in grammaticizing forms may be manifested not only as a diachronic process but also as a synchronic difference between formal and informal registers. Clitic climbing frequencies in Spanish auxiliary + gerund sequences have increased diachronically as part of a series of reductive changes and in tandem with construction frequency increases. In calculating construction frequency, both the token frequency of auxiliary + gerund sequences and their frequency relative to lone-standing gerunds turn out to be important. Differences between present-day conversational and written data show that clitic position is stylistically stratified. Register differences in clitic climbing are found to be linked to construction frequency as well, suggesting that frequency effects operate on a more general synchronic level as well as on the level of particular texts. These text-level frequency effects may be related to parallel structure “birds of a feather” effects.

scholarly journals Using the variationist comparative method to examine the role of language contact in synthetic and periphrastic verbs in Spanish

2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 394-419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenny Dumont ◽  
Damián Vergara Wilson
Keyword(s):  
Language Contact ◽  
Language Change ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Mexican Spanish ◽  
Linguistic Change ◽  
Convergence Hypothesis ◽  
Verbal System ◽  
New Mexican ◽  
Linguistic Constraints

Language contact and linguistic change are thought to go hand in hand (e.g. Silva-Corvalán 1994), however there are methodological obstacles, such as collecting data at different points in time or the availability of monolingual data for comparison, that make claims about language change tenuous. The present study draws on two different corpora of spoken Spanish — bilingual New Mexican Spanish and monolingual Ecuadorian Spanish — in order to quantitatively assess the convergence hypothesis in which contact with English has produced a change to the Spanish verbal system, as reflected in an extension of the Present and Past Progressive forms at the expense of the synthetic Simple Present and Imperfect forms. The data do not show that the Spanish spoken by the bilinguals is changing to more closely resemble the analogous English progressive constructions, but instead suggest potential weakening of linguistic constraints on the conditioning of the variation between periphrastic and synthetic forms.

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