The psychological status of phonological analyses

SUMMARY

This paper casts doubt on the psychological relevance of many phonological analyses. There are four reasons for this: 1) theoretical adequacy does not necessarily imply psychological significance; 2) most approaches are nonempirical in that they are not subject to potential spatiotemporal falsification; 3) phonological analyses are estab­ lished with little or no recourse to the speakers of the language via experimental psy­ chology; 4) the limited base of evidence which most analyses are founded on is further cause for skepticism.