Acoustic correlates of articulation-based distinctive features in perception: Evidence from Korean

Hyunsoon Kim, Hongik University Seoul Korea ([email protected] or [email protected]) The present study is concerned with the direct relationship of articulation-based phonological distinctive features, through their acoustic correlates, to perception, based on recent articulatory, acoustic and perception experiments on the three-way laryngeal contrast in Korean consonants. The recent MRI studies (Kim, et al. 2005, 2010a, 2011) have shown that, in parallel to glottal position (or height), lip closure or linguo-palatal contact/constriction, pharyngeal width and tongue movement show the same variation in the order of lenis < aspirated (<) fortis consonants with the latter two series being longer than the former in Korean. Based on these findings, Kim, et al. (2010a, 2011) have proposed that not only glottal position (or height) but also lip closure or linguo-palatal contact/constriction, pharyngeal width and tongue movement are incorporated into the feature [tense] and that the feature is defined as the tensing of both the primary articulator (lips, tongue blade or dorsum) and the vocal folds in Korean consonants. The feature [tense] in Kim, et al. (2010a, 2011) is newly modified from the traditional feature [tense] in Jakobson, Fant and Halle (1952), Jakobson and Halle (1956) and C.-W. Kim (1965), according to whom the tension of the overall vocal tract is incorporated into the feature [tense]. In addition to the tensing of both the primary articulator and the vocal folds, Kim, et al. (2005, 2010a, 2011) have found the other independent parameter of glottal opening in the production of Korean consonants, in that the glottis opens from small to large in the order lenis (<) fortis < aspirated consonants in both word-initial and word-medial positions. This has led to the proposal that the parameter of glottal opening is incorporated into the feature [spread glottis] in line with Halle and Stevens (1971). Thus, aspirated and fortis consonants are specified as [+tense] and lenis as [-tense] in terms of the tensing of the primary articulator and the vocal folds, and aspirated consonants as [+s.g.] and lenis and fortis as [-s.g.] in terms of glottal opening, as shown in (1). The acoustic correlate of the feature [s.g.] is aspiration or Voice Onset Time (VOT) (i.e., the time between the release of a consonant and the onset of voicing in a following vowel), in that aspirated consonants, whose glottal opening is larger than lenis and fortis ones, are expected to have longer VOT than the other series in both word-initial and wordmedial positions in Korean. The acoustic and aerodynamic correlates of the feature [tense] are oral closure or constriction duration, F0 and intraoral air pressure (Kim, et al. 2010b).