Chapter 12 Can Theories of Word Recognition Remain Stubbornly Nonphonological?

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter reveals that the stubborn rejection of phonology in the prevailing theories of reading cannot be sustained within a consistent theory of language processing that accommodates all of the facts, not just those that are convenient. The bulk of research on word identification using English language materials has been taken to implicate the dominance of a visual access route with, perhaps, an optional but not preferred phonological route. Data on word identification using Serbo-Croatian language materials point unequivocally to a nonoptional phonological access route. The basic mechanism of written language processing is assumed to be the same for all languages. Different data patterns among languages, therefore, are to be taken as evidence of the ways in which that mechanism can be fine-tuned by the structure of a particular language. Some differences and similarities among Serbo-Croatian, English, and Hebrew are used to elucidate possible features of a written language processing mechanism that would allow such patterns to arise. Given the nature of the data that have been obtained with Serbo-Croatian, such a mechanism must allow for automatic prelexical phonology. The chapter discusses the assumption that all writing systems are phonological, they provide a system for transcribing phonologically any possible word of the language. The variety of orthographies does this in more or less straightforward ways, resulting in their being phonologically shallow or deep.