Preface & Ch1 --- Methods in Phonology

Preface

˙The use of experimental methods in phonology has created a research environment in which rigorous argumentation often depends on integrating data from an array of traditionally distinct disciplines.
1. What is the contest of this book?
2. What is the purpose of the conference?

˙John J. Ohala
˙Methods in phonology
˙The empirical methods
˙Phonology inquiry

˙One focus
˙First
Phonology is addressing increasingly diverse questions about the structure of grammars and the representation of sound patterns in the mind and brain.
˙Second
Technologies relevant to phonological inquiry continue to evolve, as does the availability of large-scale linguistic corpora.
˙Third
There is growing recognition that phonological inquiry should be embedded within a framework informed by the biological, social, and cognitive sciences.
˙Fourth
A clear demonstration that we understand phonetic and phonological principles is the ability to model relevant behaviors and patters.

˙Second focus
(1) Explaining phonological universe.
(2)Understanding the phonetic factors that may give rise to phonological change.
(3) Maintaining, enhancing, and modeling phonological contract
(4) assessing phonological knowledge

˙Partⅰ
Delineate various theoretical considerations and provide background concerning the application of methods from other sciences.
˙partⅱ
The “phonological universals”, are concerned with providing explanations for the similarities that hold across the sound systems of many of the world’s language.
˙partⅲ
“Phonetic variation and phonological change”, use experimental methods to illustrate the principle that sound changes due to universal phonetic and cognitive factors have their origins in synchronic variation.
˙partⅳ
“Modeling, Maintaining, and Enhancing Phonological Contrast”, address how phonological contrasts or features can be modeled and how they are manifested in the phonetic domain.
˙partⅴ
“Phonotactic and phonological knowledge”, demonstrate the use of psycholinguistic, phonetic, and corpora-based methods to test fundamental claims concerning speakers’ and listeners’ knowledge of phonological processes and representations.

Ch1 -- Methods in Phonology
˙Introduction
The focus on methodology, rather than exclusively on particular theories or questions is that methodology has in determining the scientific rigor and maturity if a discipline.

Questions, Answers, Method
˙The question it asks;
˙The answers given to the questions, that is, hypotheses or theories;
˙The methods used to marshal evidence in support of the theories

Questions
˙Those questions explain how speech evolved.

Theories
˙the sound change represented a continual competition between the goals of making speech easier to produce and making it easier to perceive, both of which involve teleological elements.
˙the role played by listeners’' misperception or misparsings of the speech signal, eliminating a teleological element.

Methods
˙First, to present data in an objective way
˙Second, in a quantified way
˙Third, to present evidence that overcomes doubt as to its relevance to a particular hypothesis or theory
˙Finally, the way to overcome doubt is to gather the data with controls