Phonology as Cognition

Abstract

This paper attempts to ground phonology within psychology. That is, we are interested in phonology as a branch of the study of mental representation, the psychology of mind. In order to develop this `phonology of mind' we need to understand the relationship between formal properties of grammars and the `substance' which representations represent. Current trends in phonology fail to offer a coherent conception of form and substance and are also inconsistent with basic principles of science. In addition to critiquing the phonological literature on markedness and related issues, we offer a modest result in the study of the formal properties of the phonology: we demonstrate that phonology needs to make use of quantification to characterize the structural descriptions of rule and constraints.