Aditi Lahiri (University of Konstanz)

The research presented here is concerned with the phonological nature
of mental representations of native speakers.  Following the FUL-model
(Featurally Underspecified Lexicon, Lahiri & Reetz 2002), we claim that not
all features are present in the mental representation and that the
grammar severely constrains the way in which phonological contrasts
are preserved and utilized in normal language use.  Evidence for the
FUL-model comes from language changes which extend and maintain
phonological contrasts.  The model is also supported by results of our
MEG and EEG studies which demonstrate different cortical structures for
acoustically equidistant but phonologically conflicting vowels, and
enhanced automatic change detection response in the brain (mismatch
negativity) in instances of feature conflict (Obleser, Elbert, Lahiri &
Eulitz  2001, Eulitz & Lahiri 2002).

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