Phonetic Variation and Acoustic Distinctive Features: A study of four general American fricatives

164 Pages·1964·12.245 MB·English

by  Clara N. Bush

PHONETIC VARIATION AND
ACOUSTIC DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
JANUA LINGUARUM
STUDIA MEMORIAE
NICOLAI VAN WIJK DEDICATA
edenda curai
CORNELIS H. VAN SCHOONEVELD
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
SERIES P R A C T I CA
XII
1964
MOUTON & CO.
LONDON • THE HAGUE • PARIS
PHONETIC VARIATION
AND ACOUSTIC
DISTINCTIVE FEATURES
A Study of Four General American Fricatives
by
CLARA N. BUSH
STANFORD UNIVERSITY
1964
MOUTON & CO.
LONDON • THE HAGUE • PARIS
© Copyright 1964 Mouton & Co., Publishers, The Hague, The Netherlands.
No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm,
or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.
Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Publishers, The Hague.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This study is a direct result of the interests and questions fostered by the teaching of
Professor Dorothy A. Huntington. Its theoretical development, its design, its
instrumentation, and its final form all owe much to her vital interest in her field, her
insatiable search for interrelationships among concepts, and her conspicuous
willingness to give freely of her time and energy to her students.
Grateful appreciation is due Professor Virgil A. Anderson for his unfailing support
and for his extremely helpful criticisms, and Professor Ruth H. Weir for her continued
interest, for her valuable suggestions, and for her critical appraisal from the linguistic
point of view.
Finally, the encouragement and support so wholeheartedly given by Dr. Joseph
A. Miksak and by Griffith Richards proved to be fully as important as the willing
and valuable assistance they repeatedly provided.

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments 5
I. INTRODUCTION 11
A. Genesis of the Problem 11
B. Statement of the Problem 12
C. Plan of the Study 13
II. BACKGROUND OF THE PROBLEM 15
A. The Distinctive Feature Theory 15
B. The Specification of Phonemes in Terms of Distinctive Features . .. 19
C. The Specification of the Distinctive Features 19
III. PROCEDURES 27
A. Selection of Stimuli 27
B. Formulation of Stimulus Items 30
C. Speakers 31
D. Instrumentation 32
E. Preparation of Stimulus Items 33
F. Acoustic Analysis 34
1. Procedure in graphical recording 35
Sound spectrograph 35
Preparation of stimuli for intensity level recorder 37
Intensity level recorder 38
G. Preparation of Graphical Records for Measurement 39
H. Acoustic Measures from Sonagrams 43
I. Acoustic Measures from Intensity Level Records 43
J. Treatment of Raw Data 44
IV. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF RESULTS 45
A. Introduction 45
B. The Distinctive Feature Tense/Lax 47
1. Amount of energy 47
8 TABLE OF CONTENTS
Obtained measures (for the consonants and consonant oppositions as
a function of the adjacent vowel, vowel category, and pooled vowels) 47
Comparison measures (for the consonant cognates and consonant
opposition as a function of the adjacent vowel, vowel category, and
pooled vowels) 55
2. Spread in spectrum 61
Obtained measures (for the consonants and consonant opposition as
a function of the adjacent vowel, vowel category, and pooled vowels) 62
Comparison measures (for the consonant cognates and consonant
opposition as a function of the adjacent vowel, vowel category, and
pooled vowels) 70
3. Duration 78
Obtained measures (for the consonants and consonant opposition as
a function of the adjacent vowel, vowel category, and pooled vowels) 79
Comparison measures (for the consonant cognates and consonant
opposition as a function of the adjacent vowel, vowel category, and
pooled vowels) 86
4. Duration of the preceding vowel 91
Obtained measures (for the stressed vowels as a function of the
following consonant, the vowel category, and the following consonant
category) 92
Comparison measures (for the stressed vowels as a function of the
following consonant cognates, the vowel category, and the following
consonant opposition) 99
Obtained measures (for the unstressed vowel as function of the
following consonant, the subsequent stressed vowel opposition, and
the intervening consonant opposition) 104
Comparison measures (for the unstressed vowel as a function of the
following consonant cognates, the subsequent stressed vowel oppo-
sition, the intervening consonant opposition, and the subsequent
stressed vowels) 108
C. The Distinctive Feature Grave/Acute 113
1. Percentage of energy (200c-lkc) 114
Obtained measures (for the consonants and consonant opposition as
a function of the adjacent vowel, vowel opposition, and pooled vowels) 115
Comparison measures (for the consonant cognates and consonant
opposition as a function of the adjacent vowel, vowel opposition, and
pooled vowels) 126
D. Summary 132
1. Tense/Lax :/f/vs./v/and/9/vs./6/ 132
Amount of energy 132
Spread in spectrum 133
TABLE OF CONTENTS 9
Duration 133
Duration of the preceding vowel 134
2. Grave/Acute: /f/ vs. /0/ and /v/ vs. /&/ 135
Percentage of energy (200c-lkc) 135
V. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 137
A. The Tense/Lax Feature 138
1. Duration of the preceding vowel 139
B. The Grave/Acute Feature 140
C. Implications for the Distinctive Feature Theory 141
D. Incidental Findings 142
E. Summary 143
APPENDIXES
A. Note on the Transcription System 144
Comparative Transcription Systems 145
B. Forms 146
Instructions to Speakers 146
Sample Recording Form 147
C. Supplementary Tables 148
BIBLIOGRAPHY 154