Dissertation: Gestural Organization of Vowel Sequences and Intervocalic Glottal Stop

在国家科学基金会的支持下，在Ellen Broselow博士的指导下，Marianne Boroff女士将在墨西哥东南部对Yatzachi Zapotec（YZ）的音节结构进行实地考察，以完成她的博士论文。音节长期以来被认为是语音的基本单位;它们将语音组织成更大的单位，这些单位本身又组织成单词。 对诸如重音分配模式和有规律的语音交替（同音异义）等现象的解释，关键取决于音节的概念。 更重要的是，没有语言学知识的说话者表现出他们自己对语言的音节结构有意识;他们可以在被要求时计算音节，并公开地利用这种知识来完成某些任务，例如在发音一个单词或在一些语言游戏中。这些知识所依据的信息来自哪里？语音学家发现很难确定语音流的确切属性，这些属性使我们能够确定音节结构;音节结构不可能从话语的声学输出中读出。因此，音节必须被认为是心理表征的抽象单位，而不是语音流中的物理对象。本论文的研究有助于通过考察音节结构中辅音和元音的模式来理解音节的概念。在跨语言中，以辅音开始的音节比以元音开始的音节更受欢迎;每种语言都允许CV音节，有些语言需要辅音开头。我们能否把元音优先于辅音的原因归结为音节结构以外的因素？ 在YZ中，元音序列是不允许的，这一事实传统上可以解释为第二个元音属于一个不以辅音开头的音节。然而，YZ也不允许元音被声门塞音（英语单词uh-oh中的元音间音）分隔，即使声门塞音在语言中是一个辅音，因此原则上应该满足所有音节开始都以辅音开头的要求。很明显，这里还有别的东西在起作用，导致元音序列和由声门塞音分隔的元音序列都失败了--不仅仅是音节结构。此外，许多语言对声门塞音的处理与其他辅音不同，允许元音在声门塞音上扩散，或者要求声门塞音两侧的元音相同，并且各种语言将声门塞音限制在特定的位置。 在这项研究中，我们试图回答这些问题：为什么元音必须放在首位的辅音？ 元音有什么特殊的地方使元音序列不受欢迎（相对于初始位置的单个元音）？ 声门塞音有什么特殊的性质可以解释为什么在某些语言中不允许它作为音节的开始？ 为什么声门塞音两侧的元音应该是相同的？ 这项研究不仅有助于解释YZ数据，但也将有助于辩论的相对贡献的抽象组织单位，如音节与限制的时间的物理声道手势在组织讲话。

With National Science Foundation support, under the direction of Dr. Ellen Broselow, Ms. Marianne Boroff will conduct fieldwork in southeastern Mexico on syllable structure in Yatzachi Zapotec (YZ) for her doctoral dissertation. Syllables have long been considered a fundamental unit in speech; they organize speech sounds into larger units, which are themselves organized into words. Explanations of such phenomena as stress assignment patterns and regular sound alternations (allophony) depend crucially on the notion of syllable. More importantly, speakers with no prior linguistic knowledge show themselves to be aware of the syllable structure of their language; they can count syllables when asked, and overtly make use of this knowledge in accomplishing certain tasks, for example in enunciating a word or in some language games. Where does the information upon which this knowledge is based come from? Phoneticians have found it difficult to pin down the exact properties of the speech stream that allow us to determine syllable structure; syllable structure is impossible to read off of the acoustic output of an utterance. Therefore, syllables must be considered abstract units of mental representation rather than physical objects in the speech stream.This dissertation research contributes to the understanding of the notion of the syllable by examining the patterning of consonants and vowels with respect to syllable structure. Cross-linguistically, there is a preference for syllables that begin in a consonant over syllables that begin in a vowel; every language allows CV syllables, and some languages require an initial consonant. Can we attribute the preference for vowels to have preceding consonants to factors other than syllable structure? In YZ, vowel sequences are not allowed, a fact that would traditionally be explained by the fact that the second vowel belongs to a syllable that doesn't start with a consonant. However, YZ also does not allow vowels separated by a glottal stop (the intervocalic sound found in the English word uh-oh), even though glottal stop is a consonant in the language, and therefore should in principle fulfill the requirement that all syllables begin with a consonant. Clearly, something else is at work here that results in the failure of both vowel sequences and vowel sequences separated by a glottal stop - something other than syllable structure alone. Furthermore, many languages treat glottal stops differently from other consonants, allowing vowels to spread across them or requiring that the vowels on either side of the glottal stop be identical, and various languages restrict glottal stop to particular positions. In this study, we attempt to answer these questions: Why must vowels be preceded by a consonant in the first place? Is there anything special about vowels that make vowel sequences disfavored (as opposed to single vowels in initial position)? Is there any particular property of a glottal stop that explains why it should not be permitted to begin a syllable in some languages? Why should there be a preference for vowels flanking glottal stop to be identical? This study will not only help to explain the YZ data, but will also contribute to the debate concerning the relative contributions of abstract units of organization such as the syllable vs. constraints on the timing of physical vocal tract gestures in organizing speech.