Spring 2006
LIN 381M • Phonetics
| Unique | Days | Time | Location | Instructor |
| 40315 |
TTh |
2:00 PM-3:30 PM |
PAR 304 |
Sussman |
Course Description
The overall goal of this course is to describe the essential factors that control and constrain the production and perception of speech. In discussing speech production, the emphasis will be on explaining the anatomical, physiological, neuromuscular, aerodynamic, and non-muscular forces that underlie the articulatory movements yielding the acoustic speech waveform. The perception of speech will be approached and de-limited by discussing the elusive quest for the acoustic correlates of segmental entities. In both areas a historical perspective will be provided, discussing some of the major research studies that formed the basis for todays theoretical positions on speech motor control and the non-invariance issue in speech production/perception. Speech production will be examined in terms of its three major components: (1) respiration and the generation of subglottal air pressure (Psg) as the source of energy for speech; (2) laryngeal operations for producing the laryngeal buzz, or the sound source for voicing, known as the volume velocity airflow thru the glottis; and (3) the articulatory muscular system shaping the vocal tract resonator. Various speech motor control theories will be discussed covering such concepts as serial ordering, coarticulatory dynamics, force loading/ adaptation, and motor equivalence. Acoustic phonetics will follow, describing first the physical nature of sound, followed by spectral analysis and the source-filter theory to understand vowel production and concept of resonance. The acoustics of consonant production and suprasegmentals will conclude this unit. The third section will deal with (1) acoustic correlates of vowel and consonant perception; (2) the non-invariance dilemma and the Motor Theory of Speech Perception; (3) the locus equation perspective and relational invariance; (4) speech perception in infants and non-humans; (5) selective adaption; and (6) feature detectors.
Grading Policy
Exams: Three objective-type short answer exams; no term paper.
Texts
Course packet essential plus additional readings (in Hill library).
