Notes on the Development of Phonological Theory

Abstract

An analogy is drawn between the recent history of (generative) phonology and the history of the philosophy of mathematics. It is suggested that the formal project of Chomsky and Halle's Sound Pattern of English is closely parallel to the axiomatization of mathematics proposed by Whitehead and Russell. In these terms, the development of such restrictive theories as that of Natural Generative Phonology — and in general, the work characterized in Basbøll's Status Report as "substance—based" — represents a reaction similar to that of the Intuitionist school of mathematics. As such, it has a certain intrinsic interest, but its difficulties in reconstructing the full range of material usually considered part of phonology suggest that a modification of the interpretation of the "formalist" program represented by the standard theory is ultimately more satisfactory.