Neutralization and Homophony in Phonological Learning

语言学理论的中心任务之一是识别和形式化语言变化和言语模式变异背后的驱动力。以前的研究围绕着这样的力量是否可能来自学习压力的争论，例如，较难学习的模式可能在跨语言上是罕见的，因为它们不太可能在几代人之间传递（例如，威尔逊，2006年）;或从环境选择，例如，对于功能上更有效的通信模式（例如，韦德尔，2006年）。我的论文将通过提供一个更综合的视角来促进这场辩论-虽然我们对学习更容易的模式的偏好，作为一个普遍的约束，在塑造我们的演讲中起着至关重要的作用，但在某些情况下，可学习性偏好本身可以追溯到我们的功能需求，例如，我们避免同音异义词的倾向，以防止含糊不清的讲话。从类型学上讲，来自以前研究不足的语言的新证据表明，由于避免同音异义等因素（例如，Silverman，2010 on Korean; Kaplan & Muratani，2015 on Japanese）。然而，目前的音系学理论，其早期的发展深深植根于西方语言的音系学，仍然与这些新的跨语言研究结果脱节。因此，我的论文试图弥合这一差距，将研究不足的语言纳入理论建设，使用类型学的方法和形式分析。这项研究采取了一种更新颖的方法，从学习的角度来解释类型学数据，通过学习实验和计算建模来测试某些语音模式的可学习性是否会受到词义属性和我们避免同音异义词的需要的影响。最终，这项研究有助于我们理解语言如何在形式和功能压力下向有效的交流系统发展。

One of the central tasks of linguistic theories is to identify and formalize the driving forces behind language change and variation in speech patterns. Previous research has centered around the debate on whether such forces could arise from learning pressures, e.g., patterns that are harder to learn may be cross-linguistically rare since they are less likely to be transmitted over generations (e.g., Wilson, 2006); or from environmental selections, e.g., for patterns that are functionally more effective for communication (e.g., Wedel, 2006). My thesis will contribute to this debate by offering a more integrated perspective-while our preference for learning easier patterns, as a universal constraint, plays a vital role in shaping our speech, the learnability preference itself could in some cases trace its roots back to our functional needs, e.g., our tendency to avoid homophones for preventing ambiguous speech. Typologically, new pieces of evidence from previously understudied languages have suggested that our speech patterns and lexicon could be tightly linked to each other, due to factors such as homophony avoidance (e.g., Silverman, 2010 on Korean; Kaplan & Muratani, 2015 on Japanese). However, current phonological theories, with their early development deeply rooted in phonology of Western languages, are still disconnected with these new cross-linguistic findings. Thus, my thesis seeks to bridge this gap by incorporating the under-researched languages into theory building, using typological methods and formal analysis. The study takes an even more novel approach to explain the typological data from a learning perspective, by testing whether the learnability of certain speech patterns could be affected by the properties of word meaning and our need to avoid homophones, through learning experiments and computational modeling. Ultimately, the study contributes to our understanding of how languages evolve towards an effective communication system under both formal and functional pressures.