Haskins Publications

Number	1176
Year	2000
Drawer	22
Entry Date	01/19/2001
Authors	Studdert-Kennedy, M.
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Publication	Phonetica, 57, 275-283.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL1176.pdf
Abstract	The paper argues that the discrete phonetic segments on which language is raised are subjective gestural structures that emerge otogenetically (and perhaps emerged evolutionarily) from the process of imitating a quasi-continuous acoustic signal with a neuroanatomically segmented and somatotopically organized vocal machinery. Evidence cited for somatopic organization includes the perceptual salience in the speech signal of information specifying place of articulation, as revealed by both sine wave speech and by the pattern of errors in children’s early words.
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