Meets with Q700

What kind of thing is a word?  Although words are accessible
to us primarily in their written, orthographic form, they cannot be
defined in terms of letters, because writing is a fairly recent
technology (controlled by less than 80% of adults even today).  So
the word-like patterns of language must be, in fact, ACOUSTIC-
ARTICULATORY CATEGORIES. They are clearly organized into various
subpatterns (e.g., clusters, syllable-types, segments, etc).  This
seminar will look at data and theories about the systems of speech
sounds (ie, phonological systems) in languages in general. Readings
will touch on several disciplines to see if the many language-related
research traditions can be reconciled: topics include speech
perception, motor control, the problem of compositionality, social
vs. psychological nature of language, the so-called `phonological
loop' of short-term memory, evidence for `episodic' long-term memory
and theories of categorization.  It will be suggested that the
alphabetic literacy of western science, because of its important role
as scaffolding to support conscious scientific thought, has played a
large role in shaping the intuitions and biasses of linguists and
other cognitive scientists about the patterns and regularities
exhibited by phonology.  We have a tendency to see discrete symbols
where there are merely categories.