The role of entropy and surprisal in phonologization and language change
Elizabeth V. Hume, Frédéric Mailhot · 2013
Abstract This chapter explores some of the ways in which tools and concepts from Information Theory (Shannon 1948) can provide insight into phonologization and sound change. Two concepts are of particular relevance: entropy, which models a cognitive state of the language user associated with the amount of uncertainty regarding the outcome of some linguistic event; and the context-dependent surprisal value associated with individual elements of the system. Phonologization is predicted to preferentially affect elements linked to extreme degrees of surprisal. Interestingly, while the mechanisms that affect elements with very low or very high surprisal may differ, they pattern together in being prone to change given their low contribution to predicting outcomes in a system.