Benjamin Storme
Biographic Data
| ID | 378580 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Benjamin Storme |
| GIVEN NAMES | Benjamin |
| FAMILY NAME | Storme |
| SIGNATURE | STORME B |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Lausanne |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2560-2265 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 21 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 2 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 21 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2014 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Is Gender‐Inclusive Language Left‐Wing? The Social Meaning of Four Gender‐Inclusive Strategies in French and German
Despite evidence that gender‐inclusive language represents genders more equally than generic masculines, it still faces resistance, possibly due to its perceived association with left‐wing politics. This study explores the social meaning of gender‐inclusive language compared with generic masculines in French and German, using four gender‐marking strategies—two recently innovated and two more established—embedded in controlled textual contexts. Th…
Feminization is More Gender-Fair Than Neutralization
In many languages, masculine forms are used generically. However, extensive research demonstrates that these forms exhibit a male bias that can adversely affect the perception of opportunities by women. To address this issue, alternative linguistic forms have been proposed, typically categorized into two main strategies: feminization and neutralization. Both approaches have proven effective in reducing the male bias of masculine forms. However, t…
Expérimentation et modélisation en linguistique
Cet article présente et motive l’utilisation de deux méthodes issues des sciences naturelles pour la linguistique : l’expérimentation et la modélisation. L’expérimentation vise à tester une hypothèse de façon contrôlée et est particulièrement adaptée pour statuer sur les liens de causalité entre variables linguistiques. La modélisation linguistique vise quant à elle à proposer une analyse entièrement explicite d’un phénomène dans un modèle statis…
Effects of grammatical gender on gender inferences
A growing body of research shows that readers and listeners are biased by the grammatical gender of a noun when making inferences about the gender of its referent. This result is central in debates about gender-fair language but has mostly been established using masculine generics. This paper presents two preregistered studies on French that aim to replicate this result but using a lesser-studied type of noun: generic hybrid nouns. These nouns ca…
Paradigm uniformity effects on French liaison
French liaison is a type of external sandhi involving the use of a special consonant-final allomorph before vowel-initial words. Consonants occurring at the end of these allomorphs are challenging for phonological theory because of evidence that their prosodic and segmental realization is intermediate between the realizations of word-final and word-initial consonants. This puzzling behavior of French liaison has been used to motivate new phonolog…
A Method to Evaluate Systemic Constraints in Probabilistic Grammars
Systemic constraints evaluating several input-output mappings jointly have been proposed in phonology and morphology to account for contrast enhancement and homophony avoidance. However, these constraints are not directly compatible with current probabilistic models for constraint-based grammars, as these models typically assume constraints that evaluate input-output mappings individually. This squib proposes a simple method to address this issue…
French liaison is allomorphy, not allophony
The exact nature of French liaison as a phonological or morphological alternation is still debated. Under the phonological analysis, liaison is allophony: liaison consonants are special phonemes that alternate between a consonant allophone and zero (e.g., [t] ∼ ∅), the zero allophone being derived from the consonant phoneme through deletion (/t/ → ∅). Under the morphological analysis, liaison is allomorphy: liaison words have two underlyingly lis…
Phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy in Haitian as morphological optimization
Phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy (PCSA) may be phonologically optimizing: allomorph selection complies with the language phonotactics. However this is not always the case. A counterexample often discussed in the literature is Haitian determiner a/la. This paper further investigates Haitian by focusing on a PCSA pattern in Northern Haitian that has not yet been discussed in the theoretical literature: third person singular pronoun …
Not only size matters
Grammont’s (1914) influential Law of Three Consonants (LTC) states that French schwa is obligatorily pronounced in any CC_C sequence to avoid three-consonant clusters. Later works have shown that schwa presence is also sensitive to the nature of the consonants involved, at least at the word and phrase levels. However the LTC is still generally considered as accurate under its original formulation to describe schwa-zero alternations at the stem le…
Against the Law of Three Consonants in French
Grammont's Law of Three Consonants (LTC) states that French schwa is obligatorily pronounced in any CC_C sequence to avoid three-consonant clusters. Although schwa presence has been shown to be sensitive not only to cluster size but also to the nature of consonants in post-lexical phonology, the LTC is still considered as accurate to describe schwa-zero alternations in lexical phonology. The paper uses judgment data from French speakers in France…
Implicational generalizations in morphological syncretism
Cross-linguistic generalizations about grammatical contexts favoring syncretism often have an implicational form. This paper shows that this is expected if (i) morphological paradigms are required to be both as small and as unambiguous as possible, (ii) languages may prioritize these requirements differently, and (iii) probability distributions for grammatical features interacting in syncretic patterns are fixed across languages. More specificall…
A contrast-based account of word-final tensing
Some languages allow tense and lax vowels to contrast before word-final consonants but not word-finally, where only tense vowels are permitted. What is the motivation for this pattern? This paper proposes that the loss of vowel-duration contrasts in word-final positions is a phonetic precursor to word-final tensing. In languages where tense and lax vowels differ both spectrally and temporally, neutralization of duration contrasts in word-final po…
Constraint summation in phonological theory
Classical phonological constraints apply to individual candidates. Yet, some authors have proposed constraints that instead apply to sets of candidates, such as distinctiveness constraints (Flemming 2002) and Optimal Paradigm faithfulness constraints (McCarthy 2005). As a consequence, the classical constraints need to be ''lifted'' to sets by summing across the set. Is this assumption of constraint summation typologically innocuous? Or do the cla…
Gradient behavior without gradient underlying representations
French liaison consonants are challenging for phonological theory because they pattern ambiguously between word-initial and word-final consonants. In recent works, these facts have been used to motivate different underlying representations for liaison consonants and non-liaison consonants. This paper argues that this move is not necessary. The gradient behavior of liaison consonants can indeed be derived through constraint interaction while maint…
Calibration of Constraint Promotion Does Not Help with Learning Variation in Stochastic Optimality Theory
The Calibrated Error-Driven Ranking Algorithm (CEDRA; Magri 2012 ) is shown to fail on two test cases of phonologically conditioned variation from Boersma and Hayes 2001 . The failure of the CEDRA raises a serious unsolved challenge for learnability research in stochastic Optimality Theory, because the CEDRA itself was proposed to repair a learnability problem ( Pater 2008 ) encountered by the original Gradual Learning Algorithm. This result is s…
Contrast enhancement as motivation for closed syllable laxing and open syllable tensing
This paper proposes that closed syllable laxing and open syllable tensing of non-low vowels are motivated by conflicting strategies of contrast enhancement in vowel–consonant sequences. Laxing enhances the distinctiveness of consonant contrasts by allowing for more distinct VC formant transitions, in particular in sequences involving a non-low vowel followed by an oral labial/coronal/velar consonant (e.g. [p t k]). Tensing enhances the distinctiv…
Derived environment effects and logarithmic perception
Phonologically-derived environment effects (henceforth, PDEEs) describe patterns where a phonological process P applies only if accompanied by another phonological process P’. This paper proposed that PDEEs follow from the hypothesis that the input-output distance is perceived logarithmically: this predicts that a feature change may be less salient perceptually and therefore represent a smaller violation of faithfulness if accompanied by another …
The adaptation of French liquids in Haitian
Haitian, a French-lexifier creole with a Gbe substrate, shows an asymmetry in the way it has adapted French liquids: the French lateral was maintained in postvocalic coda position in Haitian, but the French rhotic was systematically deleted in this position. This paper presents the results of a perception study showing that the lateral is generally more perceptible than the rhotic in coda position in Modern French. The hypothesis that perception …
The effect of schwa duration on pre-schwa mid-vowel lowering in French
In Southern French, mid vowels are lowered in open syllables before schwa and in closed syllables. I propose that mid-vowel lowering is a strategy to enhance the perceptibility of a following consonant lacking good release cues. Open syllables followed by schwa behave like closed syllables and not like open syllables followed by a full vowel because, as a short vowel, schwa does not provide long enough release transitions to adequately cue a prec…
French loanwords in Vietnamese
This study examines the adaptation of French vowels in Vietnamese focusing on adaptation patterns that seem to defy a straightforward analysis based on native phonotactic restrictions or comparison of phonetic input-output similarity. A proper analysis requires reference to knowledge of the input language phonology. In the first case study, we observe that Vietnamese adapters extend the French phonotactic tendencies, i.e., Loi de Position, to loa…
The Beginning of the Lycian and Greek Versions of the Létôon Trilingual
The “synoptic method” applied to the interpretation of the Létôon Trilingual has been of much value, since it allowed scholars to make sense of a large part of the Lycian version by using the parallel Greek text. However, this method may sometimes also have been misleading, particularly when it comes to the first sentence of the two texts, whose syntax and semantics may not perfectly match. The first issue concerns the protasis in the Greek text …
Paradigm uniformity effects on French liaison
French liaison is a type of external sandhi involving the use of a special consonant-final allomorph before vowel-initial words. Consonants occurring at the end of these allomorphs are challenging for phonological theory because of evidence that their prosodic and segmental realization is intermediate between the realizations of word-final and word-initial consonants. This puzzling behavior of French liaison has been used to motivate new phonolog…
Implicational generalizations in morphological syncretism
Cross-linguistic generalizations about grammatical contexts favoring syncretism often have an implicational form. This paper shows that this is expected if (i) morphological paradigms are required to be both as small and as unambiguous as possible, (ii) languages may prioritize these requirements differently, and (iii) probability distributions for grammatical features interacting in syncretic patterns are fixed across languages. More specificall…
The Beginning of the Lycian and Greek Versions of the Létôon Trilingual
The “synoptic method” applied to the interpretation of the Létôon Trilingual has been of much value, since it allowed scholars to make sense of a large part of the Lycian version by using the parallel Greek text. However, this method may sometimes also have been misleading, particularly when it comes to the first sentence of the two texts, whose syntax and semantics may not perfectly match. The first issue concerns the protasis in the Greek text …
French loanwords in Vietnamese
This study examines the adaptation of French vowels in Vietnamese focusing on adaptation patterns that seem to defy a straightforward analysis based on native phonotactic restrictions or comparison of phonetic input-output similarity. A proper analysis requires reference to knowledge of the input language phonology. In the first case study, we observe that Vietnamese adapters extend the French phonotactic tendencies, i.e., Loi de Position, to loa…
The effect of schwa duration on pre-schwa mid-vowel lowering in French
In Southern French, mid vowels are lowered in open syllables before schwa and in closed syllables. I propose that mid-vowel lowering is a strategy to enhance the perceptibility of a following consonant lacking good release cues. Open syllables followed by schwa behave like closed syllables and not like open syllables followed by a full vowel because, as a short vowel, schwa does not provide long enough release transitions to adequately cue a prec…
Derived environment effects and logarithmic perception
Phonologically-derived environment effects (henceforth, PDEEs) describe patterns where a phonological process P applies only if accompanied by another phonological process P’. This paper proposed that PDEEs follow from the hypothesis that the input-output distance is perceived logarithmically: this predicts that a feature change may be less salient perceptually and therefore represent a smaller violation of faithfulness if accompanied by another …
The adaptation of French liquids in Haitian
Haitian, a French-lexifier creole with a Gbe substrate, shows an asymmetry in the way it has adapted French liquids: the French lateral was maintained in postvocalic coda position in Haitian, but the French rhotic was systematically deleted in this position. This paper presents the results of a perception study showing that the lateral is generally more perceptible than the rhotic in coda position in Modern French. The hypothesis that perception …
Contrast enhancement as motivation for closed syllable laxing and open syllable tensing
This paper proposes that closed syllable laxing and open syllable tensing of non-low vowels are motivated by conflicting strategies of contrast enhancement in vowel–consonant sequences. Laxing enhances the distinctiveness of consonant contrasts by allowing for more distinct VC formant transitions, in particular in sequences involving a non-low vowel followed by an oral labial/coronal/velar consonant (e.g. [p t k]). Tensing enhances the distinctiv…
A contrast-based account of word-final tensing
Some languages allow tense and lax vowels to contrast before word-final consonants but not word-finally, where only tense vowels are permitted. What is the motivation for this pattern? This paper proposes that the loss of vowel-duration contrasts in word-final positions is a phonetic precursor to word-final tensing. In languages where tense and lax vowels differ both spectrally and temporally, neutralization of duration contrasts in word-final po…
Constraint summation in phonological theory
Classical phonological constraints apply to individual candidates. Yet, some authors have proposed constraints that instead apply to sets of candidates, such as distinctiveness constraints (Flemming 2002) and Optimal Paradigm faithfulness constraints (McCarthy 2005). As a consequence, the classical constraints need to be ''lifted'' to sets by summing across the set. Is this assumption of constraint summation typologically innocuous? Or do the cla…
Gradient behavior without gradient underlying representations
French liaison consonants are challenging for phonological theory because they pattern ambiguously between word-initial and word-final consonants. In recent works, these facts have been used to motivate different underlying representations for liaison consonants and non-liaison consonants. This paper argues that this move is not necessary. The gradient behavior of liaison consonants can indeed be derived through constraint interaction while maint…
Calibration of Constraint Promotion Does Not Help with Learning Variation in Stochastic Optimality Theory
The Calibrated Error-Driven Ranking Algorithm (CEDRA; Magri 2012 ) is shown to fail on two test cases of phonologically conditioned variation from Boersma and Hayes 2001 . The failure of the CEDRA raises a serious unsolved challenge for learnability research in stochastic Optimality Theory, because the CEDRA itself was proposed to repair a learnability problem ( Pater 2008 ) encountered by the original Gradual Learning Algorithm. This result is s…
Not only size matters
Grammont’s (1914) influential Law of Three Consonants (LTC) states that French schwa is obligatorily pronounced in any CC_C sequence to avoid three-consonant clusters. Later works have shown that schwa presence is also sensitive to the nature of the consonants involved, at least at the word and phrase levels. However the LTC is still generally considered as accurate under its original formulation to describe schwa-zero alternations at the stem le…
Against the Law of Three Consonants in French
Grammont's Law of Three Consonants (LTC) states that French schwa is obligatorily pronounced in any CC_C sequence to avoid three-consonant clusters. Although schwa presence has been shown to be sensitive not only to cluster size but also to the nature of consonants in post-lexical phonology, the LTC is still considered as accurate to describe schwa-zero alternations in lexical phonology. The paper uses judgment data from French speakers in France…
Implicational generalizations in morphological syncretism
Cross-linguistic generalizations about grammatical contexts favoring syncretism often have an implicational form. This paper shows that this is expected if (i) morphological paradigms are required to be both as small and as unambiguous as possible, (ii) languages may prioritize these requirements differently, and (iii) probability distributions for grammatical features interacting in syncretic patterns are fixed across languages. More specificall…
Phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy in Haitian as morphological optimization
Phonologically conditioned suppletive allomorphy (PCSA) may be phonologically optimizing: allomorph selection complies with the language phonotactics. However this is not always the case. A counterexample often discussed in the literature is Haitian determiner a/la. This paper further investigates Haitian by focusing on a PCSA pattern in Northern Haitian that has not yet been discussed in the theoretical literature: third person singular pronoun …
Expérimentation et modélisation en linguistique
Cet article présente et motive l’utilisation de deux méthodes issues des sciences naturelles pour la linguistique : l’expérimentation et la modélisation. L’expérimentation vise à tester une hypothèse de façon contrôlée et est particulièrement adaptée pour statuer sur les liens de causalité entre variables linguistiques. La modélisation linguistique vise quant à elle à proposer une analyse entièrement explicite d’un phénomène dans un modèle statis…
Effects of grammatical gender on gender inferences
A growing body of research shows that readers and listeners are biased by the grammatical gender of a noun when making inferences about the gender of its referent. This result is central in debates about gender-fair language but has mostly been established using masculine generics. This paper presents two preregistered studies on French that aim to replicate this result but using a lesser-studied type of noun: generic hybrid nouns. These nouns ca…
Paradigm uniformity effects on French liaison
French liaison is a type of external sandhi involving the use of a special consonant-final allomorph before vowel-initial words. Consonants occurring at the end of these allomorphs are challenging for phonological theory because of evidence that their prosodic and segmental realization is intermediate between the realizations of word-final and word-initial consonants. This puzzling behavior of French liaison has been used to motivate new phonolog…
A Method to Evaluate Systemic Constraints in Probabilistic Grammars
Systemic constraints evaluating several input-output mappings jointly have been proposed in phonology and morphology to account for contrast enhancement and homophony avoidance. However, these constraints are not directly compatible with current probabilistic models for constraint-based grammars, as these models typically assume constraints that evaluate input-output mappings individually. This squib proposes a simple method to address this issue…
French liaison is allomorphy, not allophony
The exact nature of French liaison as a phonological or morphological alternation is still debated. Under the phonological analysis, liaison is allophony: liaison consonants are special phonemes that alternate between a consonant allophone and zero (e.g., [t] ∼ ∅), the zero allophone being derived from the consonant phoneme through deletion (/t/ → ∅). Under the morphological analysis, liaison is allomorphy: liaison words have two underlyingly lis…
Is Gender‐Inclusive Language Left‐Wing? The Social Meaning of Four Gender‐Inclusive Strategies in French and German
Despite evidence that gender‐inclusive language represents genders more equally than generic masculines, it still faces resistance, possibly due to its perceived association with left‐wing politics. This study explores the social meaning of gender‐inclusive language compared with generic masculines in French and German, using four gender‐marking strategies—two recently innovated and two more established—embedded in controlled textual contexts. Th…
Feminization is More Gender-Fair Than Neutralization
In many languages, masculine forms are used generically. However, extensive research demonstrates that these forms exhibit a male bias that can adversely affect the perception of opportunities by women. To address this issue, alternative linguistic forms have been proposed, typically categorized into two main strategies: feminization and neutralization. Both approaches have proven effective in reducing the male bias of masculine forms. However, t…
Linguistics (17 works) · Computer Science (16 works) · Phonetics and Phonology Research (13 works) · Linguistic Variation and Morphology (12 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Phonology (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Artificial Intelligence (9 works) · Mathematics (9 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (8 works)