Dissecting analogical leveling quantitatively: The case of the innovative potential suffix in Tôkyô Japanese

Abstract

Analogical leveling in progress of a potential suffix in Tôkyô Japanese is analyzed within a quantitative paradigm. The phenomenon, whereby an innovative potential and a conservative potential alternate, is shown through a multivariate analysis to be controlled by five factors: sociological variable complex, length of the verb stem, conjugation pattern of the verb, the following inflectional form, and embeddedness of the clause containing the suffix. Most of the linguistic constraints are observed crosslinguistically in language change or variation, giving further credibility to the analysis. Although traditional frequency-based theory of analogical leveling would predict stem frequency to be a possible factor, I demonstrate that it is not in this case. As a principled explanation for this apparent lack of contribution from frequency, the Revised Frequency Hypothesis is proposed.

Optimization of the Verbal Inflectional Paradigm by the Cyclic Application of Morphophonological Processes: Evidence from Potential Forms in Japanese

“…Similar to C-verbs, the potential forms for V-verbs also took the same suffix as the passive, honorific, and spontaneous forms do (see Table 1). Thus, the potential suffix subject to ar-Deletion in V-verbs was -rare (Fukushima, 2004;Ito & Mester, 2004;Kanda, 1964;Matsuda, 1993;Nakamura, 1953;Sano, 2010Sano, , 2011.6 In (5) and (6) The classical variant of the potential for a V-verb takes the potential suffix -rare, while ar-Deletion produces the modern suffix -re.…”

“…This innovative process has traditionally been analyzed as "ra-Deletion" where the initial syllable [ra] is 6 There are a number of extensive studies on ar-Deletion (especially for V-verbs) from various linguistic perspectives, and its sociolinguistic aspects have been examined (Nakamura, 1953;Kanda, 1964;Matsuda, 1993;Inoue, 1998;and others). These previous studies show that ar-Deletion (i) is more compatible with affirmative contexts than with negative contexts; (ii) is restricted to short stem verbs; (iii) does not occur in compound verbs, auxiliary verbs, or causative verbs; (iv) is more frequent in main clauses than in subordinate clauses; (v) is more compatible with verb stems that end in i than with verb stems that end in e; (vi) is preferred by younger speakers; and (vii) is preferred by female speakers.…”

“…In other words, the potential suffix for V-verbs was reduced to -re, reducing the discrepancy between the allomorphs to the presence/absence of an initial consonant and thus increasing consistency across the inflectional paradigm. This is a case of analogical leveling (Fukushima, 2004;Ito & Mester, 2004;Matsuda, 1993;Paul, 1970). In addition to analogical leveling, ar-Deletion is also associated with semantic disambiguation.…”

“…This innovation has lasted over 400 years. The changes consist of two separate innovative processes: (i) ar-Deletion (for consonant-final verbs: Hibiya, 1999;Sato, 1977;Yamaguchi & Akimoto, 2001; for vowel-final verbs : Fukushima, 2004;Inoue, 1998;Ito & Mester, 2004;Kanda, 1964;Matsuda, 1993;Nakamura, 1953;Sano, 2010Sano, , 2011 and (ii) re-Insertion (Inoue & Yarimizu, 2002;Sano, 2010Sano, , 2011Shin, 2004;Shioda, 2000).…”

“…Some studies have contributed to our understanding of the interaction between the changes and social factors (e.g., Matsuda, 1993;Sano, 2011), while others have contributed to the development of linguistic theory (e.g., Fukushima, 2004;Ito & Mester, 2004;Sano, 2011). However, the two morphophonological phenomena has mostly been analyzed separately, and therefore a unifying account is still lacking.…”