KEY TERMS

1. hypothesis formation and testing

2. competing hypotheses

PREVIEW

This chapter explores a subset of the phonologies of a number of languages. The purpose of this chapter is to make explicit the reasoning typically applied to the task of solving a phonology problem. By studying models of problem solving, you not only better understand the logic of problem solving, you will also gain experience with rules and issues regarding underlying representations encountered in the languages of the world.

Analyzing a system of phonological alternations is not trivial: it requires practice, where you gain experience by solving phonological problems of increasing complexity, experience which facilitates subsequent problem solving. The wider your experience is with actual phonological processes and problem solving, the better able you will be to appreciate what processes are common in the languages of the world, and to understand the dynamics of hypothesis formation, testing and revision. The first analyses given here will be more explicit about the reasoning that goes into solving data sets of this nature, in some cases deliberately going down the wrong analytical path, so that you have the opportunity to recognize the wrong path, and see how to get back on the right path. In practice, many of the calculations that are involved here are done without explicitly thinking about it – once you have suitable experience with problem solving.