TY - CHAP
T1 - The zipfian paradigm cell filling problem
AU - Blevins, James
AU - Milin, Petar
AU - Ramscar, Michael
PY - 2017/6/21
Y1 - 2017/6/21
N2 - This chapter proposes that the stable coexistence of regular and irregular patterns can be understood in terms of a trade-off between the opposing communicative pressures imposed by predictability and discriminability. On this view, irregularity is not ‘defective’ or ‘anomalous’. Instead, irregular formations exhibit an enhanced discriminability that brings them into maximal conformance with precepts like the ‘one form-one meaning principle’, while allowing them to act as attractors within a larger system. Conversely, regularity is neither ‘optimal’ nor ‘normative’. Regular patterns serve to facilitate predictability within a system. In order for regular items to perform this function, it must be possible to assign partially attested paradigms that exhaust the variation in the system. We suggest that a correlation between lexical neighbourhoods and patterns of co-filled cells bootstraps this analogical process.
AB - This chapter proposes that the stable coexistence of regular and irregular patterns can be understood in terms of a trade-off between the opposing communicative pressures imposed by predictability and discriminability. On this view, irregularity is not ‘defective’ or ‘anomalous’. Instead, irregular formations exhibit an enhanced discriminability that brings them into maximal conformance with precepts like the ‘one form-one meaning principle’, while allowing them to act as attractors within a larger system. Conversely, regularity is neither ‘optimal’ nor ‘normative’. Regular patterns serve to facilitate predictability within a system. In order for regular items to perform this function, it must be possible to assign partially attested paradigms that exhaust the variation in the system. We suggest that a correlation between lexical neighbourhoods and patterns of co-filled cells bootstraps this analogical process.
UR - https://brill.com/view/title/34655
U2 - 10.1163/9789004342934_008
DO - 10.1163/9789004342934_008
M3 - Chapter (peer-reviewed)
SN - 9789004342910
T3 - Empirical Approaches to Linguistic Theory
SP - 139
EP - 158
BT - Perspectives on Morphological Organization
A2 - Kiefer, Ferenc
A2 - Blevins, James
A2 - Bartos, Huba
PB - Brill
CY - Leiden
ER -