Contextually probable, high-frequency, or easily accessible words tend
to be phonetically reduced, a pattern usually attributed to faster
lexical access. In principle, word forms that are frequent in their
inflectional paradigms should also enjoy faster lexical access, leading
again to phonetic reduction. Yet research has found evidence of both
reduction and enhancement on paradigmatically probable inflectional
affixes. The current corpus study uses pronunciation data from conversationally
produced English verbs and nouns to test the predictions of two accounts.
In an exemplar account, paradigmatically probable forms seem enhanced
because their denser exemplar clouds resist influence from related
word forms on the average production target. A second pressure reduces
such forms because they are, after all, more easily accessed. Under
this account, paradigmatically probable forms should have longer affixes
but shorter stems. An alternative account proposes that paradigmatically
probable forms are produced in such a way as to enhance not articulation,
but contrasts between related word forms. This account predicts lengthening
of suffixed forms, and shortening of unsuffixed forms.
The results of the
corpus study support the second account, suggesting that characterizing
pronunciation variation in terms of phonetic reduction and enhancement
oversimplifies the relationship between lexical storage, retrieval,
and articulation.