Haskins Publications

Number	743
Year	1990
Drawer	13
Entry Date	11/12/1999
Authors	Browman, C. P., & Goldstein, L.
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Publication	Journal of Phonetics, 18, 299-320.
url	http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0743.pdf
Abstract	The requirements for specifying articulatory gestures - the primitive units in the framework of articulatory phonology - are outlined. As the gestures are defined in terms of task dynamics, gestural specification includes the stiffness, damping ratio, & target for each dimension of movement of a coordinated set of vocal tract articulators. The timing of the gestures is specified using phasing. In addition, the gestural approach is exemplified by an investigation into the difference in gestural organization between word pairs, eg, bray & beret. It was hypothesized that the difference between the one-syllable & the two-syllable word resided solely in the relative timing of the initial bilabial & rhotic gestures, with the two-syllable beret not having a tongue body gesture for the schwa. The hypothesis was supported by a forced-choice perceptual test & by preliminary analyses of movement data collected using an x-ray microbeam.
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