{'fraction_non_alphanumeric': 0.012571428571428572, 'fraction_numerical': 0.004571428571428572, 'mean_word_length': 5.041379310344827, 'pattern_counts': {'":': 0, '<': 0, '<?xml version=': 0, '>': 0, 'https://': 0, 'lorem ipsum': 0, 'www.': 0, 'xml': 0}, 'pii_count': 0, 'substrings_counts': 0, 'word_list_counts': {'cursed_substrings.json': 0, 'profanity_word_list.json': 0, 'sexual_word_list.json': 0, 'zh_pornsignals.json': 0}}
Sound change and speech evolution

Strictly phonemic models of the lexicon hold that the pronunciation of a phoneme is determined solely by the grammar, not word identity, and therefore predict that sound change should occur in lockstep across the lexicon. Early work on lexical diffusion in the 60’s and 70’s called the phonemic model into question by suggesting that sound change can proceed at different rates in different words, but lack of data blunted the theoretical impact of these findings. In the last few years, however, new analytic techniques combined with detailed corpus data have allowed researchers to drill down into this issue with a new and exciting degree of control. The first two papers in this session study large datasets and provide strong new evidence for an interaction between representations at the lexical and sublexical levels in sound change.