2014 Volume 31 Issue 2 Pages 593-622
Samuels (2011) develops an evolutionarily adequate theory of phonology, based on Hauser, Chomsky and Fitch (2002). In her theory, phonology is explainable through the domain-general properties in the S-M interface whose precursors are found in other animals, and the apparent uniqueness of these properties emerges from their combination. This is a plausible reply to Pinker and Jackendoff’s (2005) criticism against the Merge-only scenario of FLN by arguing for the apparently species-specific and language-specific nature of phonology.
However, we will claim that this story stands only in I-phonology but that in the spirit of methodological generalism, we must aim at constructing a theory that incorporates both I-phonology and E-phonology in the trilogy model of biolinguistics. We will also show some empirical and conceptual evidence for the DYG, which implies that even such an ‘uneconomical’ phenomenon must have a place in I-phonology as well as E-phonology and that its computation can be offered an account by Turbid Optimality Theory.
