Suboptimist

On competence.

I really hate the University of Utah testing center right now. I am applying to the University of Utah linguistcs MA program, you see, and my application can’t be processed until they have GRE scores. Naturally, the testing center promptly forgot where to send them. Blast. I was angry, but somehow I doubt the chair, who I get along with, will let me get screwed over a clerical error. We shall see.

Friday I led a discussion of laboratory phonology. It quickly became a discussion of what linguistic competence is. There were several ideas of if and how laboratory should investigate it. For example, should we disregard it entirely, since it can’t be directly measured? Should we redefine competence to include aspects of linguistic performance? Should we maybe redefine performance to get a better idea of what competence is? I don’t know what to think for sure. Good points were brought up though.

Check the docs for additions.