Steven Moran
Biographic Data
| ID | 242613 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Steven Moran |
| GIVEN NAMES | Steven |
| FAMILY NAME | Moran |
| SIGNATURE | MORAN S |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Neuchâtel |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3969-6549 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 7 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2012 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Tonogenesis
This article presents the Database of Tonogenetic Events (DTE), which describes 259 tonogenetic events from 104 genealogically and geographically diverse language varieties. The DTE allows us to identify the main types of reported tonogenesis triggering contexts, the types of resultant tones, and their effects on pitch. We illustrate the usefulness of the database with case studies addressing (i) the frequency of different types of tonogenesis, (…
Consonant stability in Portuguese-based creoles
Research on language stability typically departs from a sample of mother-daughter languages (e.g., Greenhill et al. 2017 , Honeybone 2019 , Moran et al. 2021 ). Instead, this study aims at measuring consonant stability (presence or absence of change) in Portuguese-based creoles. Our approach enables us to: (i) build a stability scale of the adaptation of shifted phonological systems, and (ii) measure distances between creoles with regard to their…
Correlates of Vocal Tract Evolution in Late Pliocene and Pleistocene Hominins
Despite decades of research on the emergence of human speech capacities, an integrative account consistent with hominin evolution remains lacking. We review paleoanthropological and archaeological findings in search of a timeline for the emergence of modern human articulatory morphological features. Our synthesis shows that several behavioral innovations coincide with morphological changes to the would-be speech articulators. We find that signifi…
Rethinking Hominin Air Sac Loss in Light of Phylogenetically Meaningful Evidence
The evolution of laryngeal air sacs in hominins has been a subject of considerable debate, with particular attention given to the inferred presence of air sacs in Australopithecus afarensis and inferred absence in Middle and Upper Pleistocene hominins. We challenge several assumptions prevalent in relevant discourse and assert that (1) while exhibiting morphological similarity, it cannot be ruled out that relationships between hyoid morphology an…
Operationalizing Borrowability
Operationalizing Borrowability
This study provides two mathematical formalizations of borrowability. These operationalizations allow us to quantitatively evaluate the borrowability of phonological segments and to make predictions about the likelihood that speech sounds will be borrowed in language contact situations. Our approach departs from traditional borrowability hierarchies based on qualitative observations and instead provides empirically motivated models based on proba…
Current research in phonological typology
its study is still underrepresented in many important venues Therefore, we (Moran and Grossman) organized two conference workshops in 2019 aimed specifically at highlighting current research in phonological typology. The first, entitled 'Phonological (in)stability and language evolution,' took place at the annual meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE), from August 21-24, in Leipzig, Germany. The second, which shares the title with thi…
Detecting structured repetition in child-surrounding speech
Caretakers tend to repeat themselves when speaking to children, either to clarify their message or to redirect wandering attention. This repetition also appears to support language learning. For example, words that are heard more frequently tend to be produced earlier by young children. However, pure repetition only goes so far; some variation between utterances is necessary to support acquisition of a fully productive grammar. When individual wo…
Efficiency in human languages
Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in communicative efficiency. It has been argued that language users act efficiently, saving effort for processing and articulation, and that language structure and use reflect this tendency. The emergence of new corpus data has brought to life numerous studies on efficient language use in the lexicon, in morphosyntax, and in discourse and phonology in different languages. In this introduc…
Revisiting population size vs. phoneme inventory size
In this discussion note we argue against the findings presented in Hay & Bauer 2007, which show a positive correlation between population size and phoneme inventory size. We argue that the positive correlation is an artifact of the authors' statistical technique and biased data set. Using a hierarchical mixed model to account for genealogical relatedness of languages, and a much larger and more diverse sample of the world's languages, we find lit…
Revisiting population size vs. phoneme inventory size
In this discussion note we argue against the findings presented in Hay & Bauer 2007, which show a positive correlation between population size and phoneme inventory size. We argue that the positive correlation is an artifact of the authors' statistical technique and biased data set. Using a hierarchical mixed model to account for genealogical relatedness of languages, and a much larger and more diverse sample of the world's languages, we find lit…
Correlates of Vocal Tract Evolution in Late Pliocene and Pleistocene Hominins
Despite decades of research on the emergence of human speech capacities, an integrative account consistent with hominin evolution remains lacking. We review paleoanthropological and archaeological findings in search of a timeline for the emergence of modern human articulatory morphological features. Our synthesis shows that several behavioral innovations coincide with morphological changes to the would-be speech articulators. We find that signifi…
Operationalizing Borrowability
This study provides two mathematical formalizations of borrowability. These operationalizations allow us to quantitatively evaluate the borrowability of phonological segments and to make predictions about the likelihood that speech sounds will be borrowed in language contact situations. Our approach departs from traditional borrowability hierarchies based on qualitative observations and instead provides empirically motivated models based on proba…
Revisiting population size vs. phoneme inventory size
In this discussion note we argue against the findings presented in Hay & Bauer 2007, which show a positive correlation between population size and phoneme inventory size. We argue that the positive correlation is an artifact of the authors' statistical technique and biased data set. Using a hierarchical mixed model to account for genealogical relatedness of languages, and a much larger and more diverse sample of the world's languages, we find lit…
Efficiency in human languages
Over the last few years, there has been a growing interest in communicative efficiency. It has been argued that language users act efficiently, saving effort for processing and articulation, and that language structure and use reflect this tendency. The emergence of new corpus data has brought to life numerous studies on efficient language use in the lexicon, in morphosyntax, and in discourse and phonology in different languages. In this introduc…
Detecting structured repetition in child-surrounding speech
Caretakers tend to repeat themselves when speaking to children, either to clarify their message or to redirect wandering attention. This repetition also appears to support language learning. For example, words that are heard more frequently tend to be produced earlier by young children. However, pure repetition only goes so far; some variation between utterances is necessary to support acquisition of a fully productive grammar. When individual wo…
Current research in phonological typology
its study is still underrepresented in many important venues Therefore, we (Moran and Grossman) organized two conference workshops in 2019 aimed specifically at highlighting current research in phonological typology. The first, entitled 'Phonological (in)stability and language evolution,' took place at the annual meeting of the Societas Linguistica Europaea (SLE), from August 21-24, in Leipzig, Germany. The second, which shares the title with thi…
Operationalizing Borrowability
Operationalizing Borrowability
This study provides two mathematical formalizations of borrowability. These operationalizations allow us to quantitatively evaluate the borrowability of phonological segments and to make predictions about the likelihood that speech sounds will be borrowed in language contact situations. Our approach departs from traditional borrowability hierarchies based on qualitative observations and instead provides empirically motivated models based on proba…
Tonogenesis
This article presents the Database of Tonogenetic Events (DTE), which describes 259 tonogenetic events from 104 genealogically and geographically diverse language varieties. The DTE allows us to identify the main types of reported tonogenesis triggering contexts, the types of resultant tones, and their effects on pitch. We illustrate the usefulness of the database with case studies addressing (i) the frequency of different types of tonogenesis, (…
Consonant stability in Portuguese-based creoles
Research on language stability typically departs from a sample of mother-daughter languages (e.g., Greenhill et al. 2017 , Honeybone 2019 , Moran et al. 2021 ). Instead, this study aims at measuring consonant stability (presence or absence of change) in Portuguese-based creoles. Our approach enables us to: (i) build a stability scale of the adaptation of shifted phonological systems, and (ii) measure distances between creoles with regard to their…
Correlates of Vocal Tract Evolution in Late Pliocene and Pleistocene Hominins
Despite decades of research on the emergence of human speech capacities, an integrative account consistent with hominin evolution remains lacking. We review paleoanthropological and archaeological findings in search of a timeline for the emergence of modern human articulatory morphological features. Our synthesis shows that several behavioral innovations coincide with morphological changes to the would-be speech articulators. We find that signifi…
Rethinking Hominin Air Sac Loss in Light of Phylogenetically Meaningful Evidence
The evolution of laryngeal air sacs in hominins has been a subject of considerable debate, with particular attention given to the inferred presence of air sacs in Australopithecus afarensis and inferred absence in Middle and Upper Pleistocene hominins. We challenge several assumptions prevalent in relevant discourse and assert that (1) while exhibiting morphological similarity, it cannot be ruled out that relationships between hyoid morphology an…
Linguistics (7 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (6 works) · Computer Science (5 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior (2 works) · Archaeology (2 works) · Artificial Intelligence (2 works) · Epistemology (2 works) · History (2 works)