The role of entropy and surprisal in phonologization and language change

Elizabeth Hume, Fred Mailhot

Abstract:

We seek to conceptualize the phenomenon of phonologization from the perspective of information theory. In particular, we argue that
information-theoretic concepts such as entropy—which models a cognitive state of the language user associated with the amount of uncertainty regarding the outcome of some linguistic event—and surprisal—which is context-dependent and is associated with individual elements of the system—are useful tools for understanding how external factors, individually and together, influence the progression of sound change. Phonologization, for example, is predicted to preferentially affect elements linked to extreme degrees of surprisal.