Evolutionary phonology: Review, assess and critique evolutionary phonology: The emergence of sound platforms by Juliette Blevins

Extract

[...] Moreover, Blevins' preference for the diachronic approach breaks new ground in acknowledging the complex evolutionary factors influencing phonology and their interrelationship with the recurrence and similarity of sound patterns across different languages. This is evidenced by a contextual consideration of evolutionary phonology in terms of analogous socio-linguistic factors in understanding changes in language. Furthermore, the comprehensive nature of Blevins' research renders evolutionary phonology contextually relevant in the development of contemporary linguistic theory. A prime example is the socio linguistic acknowledgment of the interrelationship between human perception and socio economic and cultural factors in language acquisition and development of sound patterns. [...]

[...] However, alternatively, Blevins' work in evolutionary phonology goes further than the socio-linguistic consideration and relies on the relationship between sound systems and sound patterns of languages. Moreover, Blevins' discussion of phonology suggests that the development of sound patterns and models has resulted in similarities, which correlates to the pre-existing body of academic commentary in neurology and anthropology that the grammar of most languages is essentially the same as a result of the social interaction of human species (Kiparsky, 2006). This is reinforced by Blevins' assertion that: bold claim of this model is that the precise set of sounds, sound sequences and context determined sound alternations found in a given language are all learned aspects of grammar. [...]

[...] In reinforcing the importance of the evolutionary perspective in phonetics, Blevins expressly refers to Darwin's extrapolation that formation of different languages and of distinct species is curiously parallel we find in distinct languages striking homologies due to community of descent, and analogies due to a similar process of formation” (In Blevins 1). Blevins is keen to emphasize that the evolutionary phonology is by no means an attempt to reinvent the Darwinian wheel of evolution, however utilizes the Darwinian allegory to support her proposition that phonetic evolution is better understood through a diachronic linguistic approach. [...]

[...] In particular I shall make contextual reference to the contemporary development of socio-linguistics to underline the diachronic basis of Blevins' central arguments in evolutionary phonology Evolutionary Phonology: Key Arguments and Contextual Linguistic Evaluation In proposing a theory of evolutionary phonology, Blevins' central quantitative and qualitative research basis is the study of sound patterns and sound change in language over a period of 8,000 years (Blevins i). To this end, Blevins' theory seeks to explain the similarities between unrelated languages from Native American, Australian Aboriginal, Austronesian to Indo-European via similar sound patterns (Blevins i). [...]

[...] In essence the results of the evolutionary phonology approach are proposed by Blevins as follows: An evolutionary perspective of phonology results in novel phonetic explanations for previously problematic instances of sound change and sound patterns; Non-phonetic explanations for recurrent sound patterns defy phonetic explanation; New predictions are formulated in relation to the frequency of certain types of sound change in contrast to pre-existing sound patterns; and Evolutionary phonology raises new problems of sound patterns and sound change. With regard to sound change, Blevins posits a general typology to explain sound change, which is based on the roles of S = speaker and L = Listener (Kiparsky, 2006). [...]