本論文探討實驗音韻學的本質，闡明要達到語言規律的描述適當性，不能只礤語言學家自我文法判斷的驗證，並以英語及臺閩語音韻學實驗的實例說明形式規律並不一定能反映語言使用者的語言能力。文中討論了英語的的複數形規律以及元音遷移規律，華語的音段組合規律，臺閩語的變調規律、鼻音現象、音段分析以及音節結構等的實驗研究案例，說明以實驗證據來探討音韻規律真實性的重要。為確定語言使用者所掌握的語言能力，我們需要用實驗的方式來對形式規律做確認的工作。

　　　　　In this paper we explore the nature of experimental phonology. We point out that in order for linguistic rules to have descriptive adequacy, we cannot rely simply on introspective examinations of grammaticality by the linguists themselves. Studies in English and Taiwan Min are given as examples to show that formal rules do not necessarily reflect the language users' competence. In this paper we present studies in English plural formation rule and vowel shift rule, Mandarin phonotactic rule, Taiwan Min tone sandhi rule, nasality co-occurrence rule, segmental analysis, and syllable structure, to show the importance of using experiments to study the psychological reality of phonological rules. In order to ascertain the competence of the language users, we need to validate the formal rules by means of experiments.