Explaining the English articulatory setting

Piers Messump.messum@gmail.com

http://sites.google.com/site/pmessum/home

Speech Science Forum, March 2010

Thanks to Marie-Laure Lagrange

Articulatory settingswhat they are (e.g. in English and French)

their significance

the ‘problem’ with the English AS

Speech breathinghow it’s different for young English speakers

some of the consequences

Reconciling speech breathing in English with its articulatory setting

how short/long-lag VOT’s may appear

… and the consequences for teaching pronunciation

Articulatory settings (AS)

• Sweet (1890):‘Every language has certain tendencies which control its organic movements and positions, constituting its organic basis or the basis of articulation. A knowledge of the organic basis is a great help in acquiring the pronunciation of a language.’

• Honikman (1964), Abercrombie (1967), Trudgill (1974), Laver (1980) and Jenner (1987a,b) for English

• Laver (1978) and Jenner (2001) for history

• Gick et al (2004) and Wilson (2006) for instrumental studies

“The tip of the tongue … [is] the part that has a mainly vertical aspect … plus a small area about 2mm wide on the upper surface. Sounds made with the tip of the tongue are said to be apical.

Behind the tip is the blade, which is the defining part of the tongue for sounds that are said to be laminal. It is difficult to say how far back the blade extends [but … it] is the part of the tongue below the centre of the alveolar ridge when the tongue is at rest.”

Divisions of the tongue

From Ladefoged and Maddieson (1996)Sounds of the World’s Languages

Laver (1980:23) posits a neutral configuration of the supralaryngeal tract, in which, “Front oral articulations are performed by the blade.”

But there is general agreement that English departs from the neutral configuration. Speakers primarily use the tip.

Laver (1980:50): in ‘tip’ settings, the body of the tongue is slightly retracted.

French vs. EnglishHonikman on the tongue:

The French AS has the tongue “anchored medianly … to the floor of the mouth by the tip being tethered to the lower front teeth.”

French vs. EnglishThe English AS has the tongue,

“tethered laterally to the roof of the mouth, by allowing the sides to rest along the inner surface of the upper lateral gums and teeth; the lateral rims of the tongue very seldom entirely leave this part of the roof of the mouth, whereas the tip constantly … moves up and down …Thus, one might regard the tethered part — in this case, the lateral contact — as the anchorage, and the untethered part as the free or operative part of the tongue-setting.”

From Gilbert 2001 Clear Speech from the Start

English

• Jenner (1987) has the tongue-tip raised semi-continuously in English speech, with a result that the area behind it takes on “a particular configuration best described as concave or hollowed”

• Sweet (1906) and Honikman (1964:77) agree, describing this as a slightly retroflex setting

• Further summaries in Wilson (2006)

Significance of AS’s

“… where two languages are disparate in articulatory setting, it is not possible completely to master the pronunciation of one whilst maintaining the articulatory setting of the other.”

Honikman (1964:74)

Significance of AS’s

“Without [a representation of the generalised articulatory and phonatory settings] the essential nature of ‘foreign accent’ cannot be captured and phonetics will not be able to offer the language teacher any basis for an improvement in strategies for the teaching of pronunciation.”

Jenner (1987:137)

But is an AS teachable?

The ‘problem’ with English

• The ‘problems’ with English …• Why do English speakers depart from a

‘neutral configuration’ (e.g. retract our tongues, and use the tip for front articulations)?

• How are AS’s acquired?

How are AS’s learnt?

Gick et al (2004:222) asked if AS’s are:

“specified parts of a language’s inventory”

“functionally derived properties of speech motor production”

– Motor efficiency via token frequency?– Or via type frequency (how best to realise all the

tokens)?

Or is there another basis for the English AS?

Speech Breathing

‘Cinderella’ of Speech Science

Simplest adult model:• Inhalation inflates a ‘balloon’• Recoil pressure drives airflow,

supplemented by expiratory muscles

Child model is fundamentally different

2

4

6

8

10

0 10 20 30 40

AGE

Rec

oil

(cm

H2O

)

Combined female and male

Stathopoulos (2000)

2

4

6

8

10

0 10 20 30 40

AGE

Rec

oil

(cm

H2O

)

Combined female and male

A child’s chest wall is very compliant. His style of speech breathing cannot be based on recoil pressures

P

P

t

t

Subglottal pressure (Psg)

Relaxation pressure

Pressure generated by volitional expiratory activity

Higher subglottal pressure (Psg)

Lower relaxation pressure

Shorter breath groups

Greater pressure generated by volitional expiratory activity

Stathopoulos (2000)

From pulsatility to elevated background pressure (Kneil, 1972)

Children’s style of speech breathing PULSATILE

VOLUME + PULSATILE SOLUTION

CONSTANT NET FORCE

Articulation rate slower All production must be made with expiratory gesturesAll production is ‘high effort’ Skill in valving of upper articulators is undevelopedGenerally, motor skills are ‘jerky’ before they are smoothetc …

Laryngeal mechanism probably unavailable for stress-accent, so young speakers of West Germanic languages must use an increase in initiator power to realise routine sentence stress

Pre-fortis clipping:cat vs. cad, peace vs. peas

Pre-‘consonant cluster’ clipping:ram - ramp - ramped

Foot level shortening (hence ‘stress-timing’):one | two | three | four vs.

one and then | two and then | three and then | …

‘Long’ and ‘short’ vowels (‘tense’ and ‘lax’):heat vs. hit, Luke vs. look

Temporal epiphenomena

The ‘problem’ with English

Why do English speakers depart from a ‘neutral configuration’ for their overall articulatory setting?

[t, d, n, etc]

Why articulated with tip not blade? (Requiring speakers to draw tongue back from ‘neutral’ position)

Is there a connection with /t, d/ being– [+/- aspiration]– long and short lag VOT

in English (in stressed contexts)?

Standard view, that VOT develops through temporal imitation:

– VOT’s start effectively undifferentiated in child production,

– they progress through ‘covert contrasts’ to sometimes overshoot adult norms,

– they continue to develop despite, “the distinction [between them] usually sound[ing] all right to the adult by the time the child is about 4 years old” (Hawkins 1994:4179),

– they settle into adult-like values at around age 6,– but their values continue to be more variable than

those seen in adult productions until about age 8.

Adult data also unsatisfactory

Can English long-lag VOT be explained within the pulsatile child speech breathing paradigm?

Can English long-lag VOT be explained within the pulsatile child speech breathing paradigm?

New problem is Pāli/Hindi stops:

/p ph b bh/, /t th d dh/, etc

How do these develop?

New solution:

two ways of releasing occlusions …

Developmental mechanism

• Babble with blade of tongue for front articulations• Experiment with different ways of releasing plosives• Remember! Higher pressures, etc• West Germanic speaking children adopt stress accent• Stress pulses + passive releases lead to aspirated, long-

lag [t] • Interlocutors recognise and reinforce this production• Passive release / crisp sound are facilitated by apical

articulation• Development of a new AS is favoured …

[p, b]Why are these articulated within an overall AS which has notably “loose, inactive lips” (Jenner 1987)?

Part of the “relative relaxation throughout”.Cf. Dutch “pursed lips” Collins and Mees (1996)

Is there a connection with /p, b/ being– [+/- aspiration]– long and short lag

in English (in some contexts)?

SummaryA non-imitative account of development: motor experimentation plus interlocutor reinforcement is the mechanism.

Consistent with a general account where children do not have to pay considerable attention to the phonetic niceties of the ambient language in order to acquire it.

Development within the pulsatile SB paradigm ‘explains’ why VOT and aspiration are so connected with stress, and also explains the anomalous VOT data.

Further, it ‘explains’ why English-speaking children develop an AS that departs from a neutral setting in various ways.

Teaching implications