THE QUANTIFICATION OF FUNCTIONAL LOAD--A LINGUISTIC PROBLEM.

MEASUREMENT CRITERIA ARE DEVELOPED FOR THE QUANTIFICATION OF THE FUNCTIONAL LOAD OF THE PHONEMES OF A LANGUAGE. THE CONCEPT OF FUNCTIONAL LOAD OR YIELD, FROM CERTAIN THEORIES OF LINGUISTIC CHANGE, STATES THAT SOME CONTRASTS BETWEEN THE DISTINCTIVE SOUNDS OF A LANGUAGE DO MORE WORK THAN OTHERS BY OCCURRING MORE FREQUENTLY AND IN MORE LINGUISTIC ENVIRONMENTS THAN OTHER CONTRASTS. THE CRITERIA DEVELOPED, WHICH UTILIZE SHANNON'S MEASURE OF ENTROPY, CAN BE USED TO MEASURE THE WORK OF PHONEMES, ALLOPHONES, OR COMPONENTS AND ARE THUS APPLICABLE IN ALL CURRENT THEORIES OF PHONOLOGY. IT IS SUGGESTED THAT THERE IS A BALANCE POINT IN THE PHONOLOGICAL SYSTEM OF ANY LANGUAGE BETWEEN THE FORCE OF LEAST EFFORT LEADING TO LOWEST REDUNDANCY AND THE NEED TO BE UNDERSTOOD, WHICH LEADS TO LOWER RELATIVE ENTROPY. (KL)