I. Introduction
The experimental method is based on the recognition that our knowledge of the work may be misleading, and not as it may seem; therefore, those knowledge that are not agree with observation should be discarded. The primary purpose of the Experimental Phonology is not to create knowledge, but to refine it by observing it during experimentation. So, as Cark (1996,416) points out that experimental phonology is a reaction against generative phonology if not a direct one. It is said that experimental phonology is a branch of psycholinguistics concerning with the formulation and testing of theories of linguistic knowledge and abilities that involve learned or perceived sound structures. Ohala (1986,188) defines that ¡§the term ¡¥experimental phonology¡¦ denotes the experimental psychological investigation of the units and concepts of formal phonological and morphophonemic analysis in linguistics (which excludes researches in the experimental phonetics) .¡¨
Do
experiments ever settle Issues? According to Ohala, there are no perfect routes
to the truth (if one believes truth exists) and experiments are no exception.
Being performed by fallible humans, they can be fallible, too. The answer to an
experiment suspected of being flawed is a better-controlled experiment which
overcomes the flaw. Thus experimental phonology or experimental anything should
be viewed as a spiral process: make a claim; test the claim; revise (or abandon)
the claim; test the revised claim, etc. Ultimately, this continuous process
should lead to a convergence of results which support a more confidently held
belief.