Abstract

This dissertation investigates the role of abstractions in linguistic knowledge, particularly focusing on phonological representations and its interface with phonetics. It explores how abstract phonological grammar, which determines the "sound patterns" of languages, impacts speech detection, processing, and production. The work consists of a collection of independent articles, with some written specifically for this dissertation, centered on understanding the phonology-phonetics interface from a substance-free perspective.

Chapter 1 sets the historical context for substance-free phonology, tracing its development from the cognitive revolution of the 1950s and the influence of Noam Chomsky's work, culminating in the biolinguistic program.

Chapter 2 reviews the foundations of substance-free phonology, arguing that its philosophical basis stems from the strong-minimalist thesis and emphasizes reducing phonological content in Universal Grammar (UG). It lays the groundwork for constructing a model of the phonology-phonetics interface, emphasizing a partially veridical relationship between phonological form and phonetic substance.

Chapter 3 examines the implications of a substance-free approach for the phonology-phonetics interface, discussing the challenges of a deterministic relationship between phonological form and phonetic realization. It proposes a hybrid framework that avoids both absolute determinism and complete arbitrariness, supported by neurobiological models of speech processing.

Chapter 4 presents an empirical study using dichotic listening to investigate how bilinguals manage phonological features in speech perception. The study finds that perceptual intrusions from an unattended language are influenced by voicing, supporting a feature specification approach based on privative features and underspecification.

Chapter 5 continues the behavioral investigation with experiments on velar palatalization in Malayalam. It reports significant vowel and suffix effects on palatalization, contributing to understanding the phonological and phonetic division of labor. An interface account, couched in the hybrid framework developed in Chapter 3, is provided.

Chapter 6 discusses neurobiological research on phonological representations, including a project examining event-related potentials (ERP) to differentiate phonological from other linguistic alternations. It also proposes future research on contrasting phonological and phonetic alternations in Hindi and French.

Chapter 7 concludes by reflecting on the dissertation's contributions, emphasizing the unifying theme of abstract substance-free neural symbols in phonological representations, and addressing feedback received throughout the research.