Volume 32, Issue 3

This article, the sixth in a series presenting the results of a computer-assisted analysis of a tape-recorded corpus of natural conversations by members of the educated middle-class of Paris, deals with liaison. The results, as compared to those of earlier studies on this subject, show a number of interesting differences, possibly due to recent linguistic evolution. The frequency of liaison is studied in the context of (1) the grammatical functions of the contiguous words involved in the phenomenon, (2) the phonetic characteristics of the liaison consonant and (3) a number of paralinguistic variables such as sex, age, occupation, syllabic rate, loudness, the attitude and posture of the speaker, and subject matter. These results are incorporated into a new table of practical rules for the linguist, teacher and student of French, that also specifies liaison differences between the conversational style of the dominant (Ile-de-France) dialect of French and the artistic affectation known as elocution.

An experimental phonetic investigation is described whose goal it was to develop a test which could be used to establish norms in the perception of vowels by native speakers of German. Particular emphasis is placed upon the design of the experiment. The test procedure and the results are discussed.

Electronic instruments to measure tongue and lip pressures and pressure patterns in Australian aborigines made it possible to differentiate physiologically between certain sounds. Lingual pressure patterns indicate that the /t/, /nt/ and /tj/ sounds in the Walbiri language require different articulatory gestures and are properly considered separate phonemes. Labial pressures distinguish classes of phonemes but not individual sounds. Tongue positioning within the oral cavity of aborigines reveals compensations for their different anatomy, but articulatory gestures are remarkably similar in aborigines and Americans.