The Phonetics/Phonology Issue in the Study of Articulatory Reduction

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Abstract
After a brief review of important landmarks in the development of the phonetics/phonology dichotomy, the need for the integration of the two approaches is stressed. It is argued that, on the one hand, instrumental speech signal processing has to be subordinated to the language point of view, but that, on the other hand, the linguistic categories, such as phoneme and distinctive feature, should be critically assessed in respect of their adequacy as language categories, relevant for speakers and hearers. The phoneme is associated with word phonology, and problems are pointed out that arise when it is applied to the phonetics above the word. With reference to articulatory reduction processes in German, especially in function words, the interplay between the principles of economy of effort, on the part of the speaker, and of the need for distinctiveness for the listener are discussed. Empirical data are presented showing that reductions can be arranged along a continuous scale in spite of phonemic switches, if the physiological and articulatory dynamics are taken into account, providing deeper insight into human speech and language than the phonemic perspective. The concept of a ‘reduction coefficient’ is introduced and the call for a new ‘paradigm’ in the science of the spoken medium put forward.

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