Paul de Lacy (Rutgers Uni. & Uni. of Auckland) and Shu-Hao Shih (National Taiwan Uni.) will present, `How we know what we don’t know,’ in the Linguistics colloquium series at 3:30pm on Friday March 25th via zoom. An abstract follows. All are welcome!
Abstract
We will talk about some pervasive problems with methods used for obtaining evidence for linguistic theories. We will illustrate these problems by attempting to quantify uncertainty about our evidence for our theories of sonority-driven stress. We will conclude that the field needs to focus on demonstrating method validity in order to advance.
Readings
For those who are interested in sonority-driven stress, the following articles catalogue the evolution of our theories and evidence.
Shih, Shu-hao and Paul de Lacy (2019) Evidence for sonority-driven stress. Catalan Journal of Linguistics 18. https://tinyurl.com/shihdelacy2019
Shih, Shu-hao (2018). On the existence of sonority-driven stress in Gujarati. Phonology 35. https://tinyurl.com/shih2018
de Lacy, Paul (2014). Evaluating evidence for stress systems. In Harry van der Hulst (ed.) Word stress: Theoretical and typological issues, Cambridge University Press, pp. 149-193. https://tinyurl.com/delacy2014
de Lacy, Paul (2004). Markedness conflation in Optimality Theory. Phonology 21.2:145-199.