Die Präferenztheorie in der historischen Phonologie aus junggrammatischer Perspektive

Hill, Eugen (2009): Die Präferenztheorie in der historischen Phonologie aus junggrammatischer Perspektive. In: Zeitschrift für Sprachwissenschaft, Vol. 28, No. 2: pp. 231-263

Abstract

The paper deals with the so-called Preference Theory developed in the works of Theo Vennemann and Robert Murray within the scope of historical phonology The first part of the paper examines the constituting assumptions and claims of the theory. The goal of the preference-based historical phonology - uncovering the motivation for sound changes which the Neogrammarian methodology can merely describe - will be achieved only if the universal preferences are reliably established It is shown that the procedures which are employed to extract the universal preferences from empirical data do not lead to reliable results. The reason for this is the failure of the Preference Theory to distinguish in a non-arbitrary way between the alleged universally preferred structures and the mere by-products of sound changes with different or unknown motivation. The second part of the paper examines a recently suggested modification of the traditional notion of the exceptionlessness of sound changes. According to Vennemann, the traditional exceptionless sound changes arc, in fact to be considered (is non-exclusive tendencies towards universally more preferred phonological structures. The paper shows that this position is neither based on the core assumptions of the Preference Theory nor supported by the adduced empirical evidence.

• Item Type: Journal article
• Form of publication: Publisher's Version
• Faculties: Languages and Literatures > Department 2 > General Linguistics and Language Typology
• Subjects: 400 Language > 430 German and related languages
• ISSN: 0721-9067
• Alliance/National Licence: This publication is with permission of the rights owner freely accessible due to an Alliance licence and a national licence (funded by the DFG, German Research Foundation) respectively.
• Language: German