The goal of the PhonolEEGy conference is to intersect experimental research based on EEG / MEG with phonological theory. While EEG / MEG-based research concerning linguistically relevant sound and its patterning (phonology) is growing, work that explicitly addresses phonological theory is still relatively limited. The conference aims at promoting EEG / MEG-based experimental evidence as it informs phonological theory in order to grow the intersection of these fields.
The conference will take the form of a two-day meeting where stabilized or fresh-from-the-lab results are presented, also with room for discussing methodology, experiment design and emerging projects. Contributors are invited to present not only their data and interpretation, but also the bigger picture of how they view phonology in a linguistic context and the role of neurophysiological evidence in phonological theory.
Most existing work that brings EEG / MEG-based evidence to bear on phonological theory is based on (asymmetric) MMN and the idea that varying standards in MMN stimulus presentation allows us to elicit phonological (rather than phonetic) categories that MMN will reflect (Phillips et al. 2000). While this has proven to be a fruitful experimental setting, contributions using experimental protocols different form (asymmetric) MMN are especially invited, as are those using production data, which are also underrepresented in the field.
EEG / MEG-based work also addresses aspects of phonology that are not directly relevant to phonological theory such as the transformation of the continuous acoustic signal into discrete phonological categories that are manipulated by the cognitive system, perception and production routines in phonological or auditory processing, neural encoding and localization of phonological items in the brain (such as segments, alternations or markedness), preattentive or sublexical speech processing, processing of different types of phonological items (well- vs. ill-formed, phonemic vs. allophonic), or the kind of information stored in a phoneme (phonetic vs. more abstract).
This research often pursues goals that do not speak to issues in phonological theory per se, but which are actually relevant. Contributions in this area are invited to make explicit in which way their experimental evidence or results impact phonological theory.
Finally, contributions are also invited which do not involve genuine neurophysiological data but rather link existing EEG / MEG-based evidence with phonological theory.
After its initial venue in Nice / France in Fall 2020, the second installment of the PhonolEEGy conference comes in the guise of a satellite event during the Linguistic Society of America’s (LSA) 2023 Summer Institute, held at UMASS/Amherst. In this context, we are specifically encouraging undergraduate and graduate student attendees at the LSA institute to participate as audience and presenters.