Neighborhood Density in Phonological Alternations

Abstract

in lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:

Neighborhood density (ND) is a measure of how similar a word is to other words in the lexicon. In response to the growing evidence of the significance of ND for word identification and word production, linguists have started asking what role ND could play in phonological alternations, without reaching a consensus. This paper assesses the role of ND in a phonological alternation in Norwegian, by asking whether the alternation is best predicted by ND or by the phonological structure of the alternators. The results reveal how these factors are strongly correlated and equally good predictors of alternations.