音段切分的语音学理据——以汉语和英语的VCV语音序列为例

The Phonetic Rationale of Acoustic Segmentation——Taking VCV Sequences in Mandarin and English as an Example

音段切分是许多语音学实验研究中必要且关键的步骤。文章首先对“音段边界”的本质进行界定,指出其存在的根本原因是发音姿态的改变,这一改变会导致音段声学特性和听觉特性的重要变化,进而指出利用现代声学图谱进行音段切分的可行性。此后文章以汉语和英语中的VCV语音序列为例,详细讲解了辅音对元音在关键发音姿态上的影响以及由此可能导致的声学结果,最后在此基础上提出了以辅音发音姿态的关键变化为判断标准,以其声学和听觉实现形式为主要判断依据的音段切分方法,并指出了该方法的优点、不足和使用的注意事项。

Acoustic segmentation is an indispensable step in many phonetic experimental studies.This paper first clarifies the nature of‘phonetic boundary’and points out that its validity of existence lies in the change of articulatory gestures,which will lead to systematic changes in the acoustic and auditory properties of a sound.That is why phonetic-acoustic segmentation by using waveforms and spectrograms are viable and practicable.Then the paper takes Mandarin Chinese and English as the example to illustrate the influence of the consonant on the vowels in key articulatory gestures as well as the acoustic consequences resulted from this influence.Last but not the least,this paper proposes a set of segmentation guidelines with key articulatory gestural changes of the consonant as the basis and with corresponding acoustic and auditory property changes as the reference.The advantages,defects and some notes about this segmentation approach are also provided.