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Deciding the status of controversial phonemes using frequency distributions; An application to semiconsonants in Spanish

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  • Ortega-Rodríguez, Manuel
  • Solís-Sánchez, Hugo
  • Gamboa-Alfaro, Ricardo

Abstract

Exploiting the fact that natural languages are complex systems, the present exploratory article proposes a direct method based on frequency distributions that may be useful when making a decision on the status of problematic phonemes, an open problem in linguistics. The main notion is that natural languages, which can be considered from a complex outlook as information processing machines, and which somehow manage to set appropriate levels of redundancy, already “made the choice” whether a linguistic unit is a phoneme or not, and this would be reflected in a greater smoothness in a frequency versus rank graph. For the particular case we chose to study, we conclude that it is reasonable to consider the Spanish semiconsonant /w/ as a separate phoneme from its vowel counterpart /u/, on the one hand, and possibly also the semiconsonant /j/ as a separate phoneme from its vowel counterpart /i/, on the other. As language has been so central a topic in the study of complexity, this discussion grants us, in addition, an opportunity to gain insight into emerging properties in the broader complex systems debate.

Suggested Citation

  • Ortega-Rodríguez, Manuel & Solís-Sánchez, Hugo & Gamboa-Alfaro, Ricardo, 2018. "Deciding the status of controversial phonemes using frequency distributions; An application to semiconsonants in Spanish," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 503(C), pages 1020-1029.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:phsmap:v:503:y:2018:i:c:p:1020-1029
    DOI: 10.1016/j.physa.2018.08.031
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Thurner, Stefan & Hanel, Rudolf & Klimek, Peter, 2010. "Physics of evolution: Selection without fitness," Physica A: Statistical Mechanics and its Applications, Elsevier, vol. 389(4), pages 747-753.
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