Methods of Investigating the Sound Matter of the Language

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 1484.

Let us consider the methodsapplied in investigating the sound matter of the language. It is useful to distinguish between phonetic studies carried out without other instruments of analysis than the human senses and such as are based upon the witness of registering or computing machines and technical analysing or synthesizing devices. The use of such a device as the tape-recorder does not of course imply in itself any instrumental analysis of the speech recorded, but simply serves the purpose of facilitating the speech analysis and conserving a replica of the speech the informants use.

If controlled phonetic experiments employ the use of measuring devices and instrumental techniques, this sub-field of phonetics is called instrumental phonetics.Instrumental methods deriving from physiology and physics were introduced into phonetics in the second half of the 19th century in order to supplement and indeed to rectify the impressions deriving from the human senses, especially the auditory impressions, since these are affected by the limitations of the perceptual mechanism, and in general are rather subjective.

The use of instruments is valuable in ascertaining the nature of the limitations and characteristics of the human sensory apparatus by providing finer and more detailed analysis against which sensory analysis can be assessed. In a general way, the introduction of machines for measurements and for instrumental analysis into phonetics has resulted in their use for detailed study of many of the phenomena which are present in the sound wave or in the articulatory process at any given moment, and in the changes of these phenomena from moment to moment. This is strictly an instrumental method of study. This type of investigation together with sensory analysis is widely used in experimental phonetics.

The results available from instrumental analysis supplement those available from sensory analysis. Practically today there are no areas of phonetics in which useful work can and is being done without combining these two ways of phonetic investigation. The “subjective”methods of analysis by sensory impression and the “objective”methods of analysis by instruments are complementary and not oppositive to one another. Both “objective” and “subjective” methods are widely and justifiably used in modern phonetics.

Articulatory phoneticsborders with anatomy and physiology and the tools for investigating just what the speech organs do are tools which are used in these fields: direct observation, wherever it is possible, e.g. lip movement, some tongue movement; combined with x-ray photography or x-ray cinematography; observation through mirrors as in the laryngoscopic investigation of vocal cord movement; palatography – recording patterns of contact between the tongue and the palate; glottography – studying the vibrations of the vocal cords, etc.

Acoustic phoneticscomes close to studying physics and the tools used in this field enable the investigator to measure and analyse the movement of the air in the terms of acoustics. This generally means introducing a microphone into the speech chain, converting the air movement into corresponding electrical activity and analysing the result in terms of frequency of vibration and amplitude of vibration in relation to time. The use of such technical devices as spectrograph, intonograph and other sound analysing and sound synthesizing machines is generally combined with the method of direct observation.

The methods applied in auditory phoneticsare those of experimental psychology.

The above mentioned instrumental techniques are used in experimental phonetics, but not all instrumental studies are experimental: when a theory or hypothesis is being tested under controlled conditions the research is experimental, but if one simply makes a collection of measurements using devices the research is instrumental.

As it was stated above, phoneticians cannot act only as describers and classifiers of the material form of phonetic units. They are also interested in the way in which sound phenomena function in a particular language, how they are utilized in that language and what part they play in manifesting the meaningful distinctions of the language.