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Yatzachi Zapotec(YZ)进行音节结构的实地研究，以完成她的博士论文。长期以来，音节一直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。对重音分配模式和规则发音变化(变音)等现象的解释在很大程度上取决于音节的概念。更重要的是，没有语言知识的说话者会表现出对他们语言的音节结构的意识；他们可以在被要求时计算音节，并公开地在完成某些任务时利用这些知识，例如在发音或在一些语言游戏中。这些知识所依据的信息从何而来？语音学家发现很难确定语音流的确切性质，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，音节必须被认为是抽象的心理表征单位，而不是语流中的物理对象。本文的研究通过考察辅音和元音相对于音节结构的模式来帮助理解音节的概念。在跨语言方面，人们更喜欢以辅音开头的音节，而不是以元音开头的音节；每种语言都允许使用CV音节，有些语言需要声母。我们能不能把偏爱元音前辅音的原因归因于音节结构以外的其他因素？在YZ中，元音序列是不允许的，这一事实传统上会被解释为第二个元音属于一个不以辅音开头的音节。然而，YZ也不允许元音由声门停顿(英语单词eh-oh中的元音间发音)分隔，即使声门停顿是语言中的辅音，因此原则上应该满足所有音节都以辅音开头的要求。显然，这里还有其他因素在起作用，导致元音序列和由声门停顿分隔的元音序列都失败了--除了音节结构之外的其他因素。此外，许多语言对声门塞音的处理与其他辅音不同，允许元音分布在声门塞音上，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位置。在这项研究中，我们试图回答这些问题：为什么元音之前必须有辅音？元音有什么特殊之处，使得元音序列不受欢迎(相对于初始位置的单元音)？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应该允许它开始一个音节？为什么偏爱声门止音两侧的元音是相同的？这项研究不仅有助于解释YZ的数据，而且将有助于关于抽象组织单位的相对贡献的争论，例如音节与组织语音时物理声道手势的时间限制。

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.