A Phonologist's View of the Past Tense Controversy

Explore the linguistic debate surrounding English past tense formation from a phonological perspective in this comprehensive lecture by Bruce Hayes from UCLA's Department of Linguistics. Delve into the theoretical controversy between rule-based and connectionist approaches to understanding how speakers form past tense verbs, examining evidence from phonological patterns, morphological processes, and psycholinguistic research. Analyze the competing models that attempt to explain regular versus irregular past tense formation, including the dual-mechanism theory and single-mechanism alternatives. Investigate how phonological constraints influence past tense allomorphy, the role of frequency effects in verb inflection, and the implications for understanding the mental lexicon and morphological processing. Examine case studies of English past tense patterns, including the distribution of -ed allomorphs, the behavior of irregular verbs, and the treatment of novel or borrowed words. Consider the broader implications of this debate for theories of language acquisition, cognitive processing, and the architecture of grammar, while evaluating empirical evidence from various linguistic and psycholinguistic methodologies.