The global character of phonetic gestures.
| Number | 739 |
|---|---|
| Year | 1990 |
| Drawer | 13 |
| Entry Date | 11/12/1999 |
| Authors | Mattingly, I. |
| Contact | |
| Publication | Journal of Phonetics, 18, 445-452. |
| url | http://www.haskins.yale.edu/Reprints/HL0739.pdf |
| Abstract | [Introduction] Articulatory phonology, which takes phonetic gestures as the primitive units of phonological representation, is a development very welcome to those of us who favor the motor theory, according to which phonetic gestures are the primitive units of speech perception (Liberman & Mattingly, 1985). But it is essential to both enterprises that the notion of a phonetic gesture be rich enough to play the theoretical role required of it, yet remain grounded in experimental-phonetic observation. The term gesture is sometimes used by phoneticians simply to mean an observable movement of some articulator. But this usage is hardly satisfactory, if the term is to refer to a primitive unit in phonology or in the psychology of speech production and perception. The movement of an articulator may result from aerodynamic conditions rather than from active motor control, as when the vocal folds vibrate in phonation. Two phonologically equivalent movements may differ physically because of such non-linguisitc factors as speaking rate and vocal effort. Movements of two or more articulators may consitute what we would prefer, on phonological grounds, to call a single gesture, as when upper and lower lip collaborate in lip protrusion. Conversely, the movement of a single articulator may consist of components attributable to phonologically distinct gestures, as when the tongue body participates simultaneousely in the formation of a vowel and an alveolar consonant. These obvious consideration are enough to remind us that a phonetic gesture must necessarily be something of an abstraction, and that a gestural transcription cannot simply be read off from articulator movement data. |
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