Self‐Organization in Phonology

Finished · Usage-Based Theories

Summary

This chapter lays out the basic concepts of what a self-organizing system is, and it then discusses certain phonological phenomena that can be explained by self-organization. The major goal of the chapter is to explain that self-organization gives clear explanations to how certain types of high-order structure is developed in language.

Self-organization involves non-linear systems, where local interactions build up to cause a more high-level pattern to emerge. Self-organization also involves dissipative systems, in which over time structure is built up through use and transmission of language. In a self-organizing system, feedback, both positive and negative, is crucial. Positive feedback occurs when an event happens and makes that same event more likely to happen in the future. Negative feedback has the opposite effect, where an event happening makes the event less likely in the future. Positive feedback causes certain patterns to snowball and happen more and more often. If this were the only feedback in the system, convergence to that pattern would be certain. Nevertheless, negative feedback prevents the total convergence to a single pattern. Examples of positive feedback are the production of a vowel with certain phonetic properties being reinforced and being more likely to be produced that way in the future. However, if there is a lexical contrast held up by say F2 contrasts between fleet and flute vowels, the negative feedback is that you are conflating lexical meaning, so they will work to prevent the collapse of the two categories.