On Some Doubtful or Intermediate Articulations: An Experiment in Phonetics.

Hale, Horatio

doi:10.2307/2841981

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“…11) According to Parks (1976:15) Kinkade (1985) and Bates et al (1994). Hale's (1885) article in their correspondence, and Boas did not refer to it in his publications (see also Wells 1974). 14) Note that Boas crossed out Powell's name in the quote.…”

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confidence: 92%

Franz Boas’ Theory of Phonetics

Mackert

1994

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SummaryFranz Boas’ (1858–1942) Statements on phonetics can only be appreciated adequately if they are read against the background of 19th-century experimental psychology, acoustics, physiology, and psychophysics. This paper demonstrates that Boas adhered to a theory of phonetics which included a physical and a psychological component. The former component was informed by contemporary ideas on phonetics put forward by Hermann Helmholtz (1821–1894), Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920), Hermann Paul (1846–1921), and Mikołaj Kruszewski (1851–1887). Within this component, Boas included the production of speech sounds, their acoustical nature, and the mechanical workings of the ear. For Boas, speech-sounds were averages consisting of groups of oscillations which gave each sound its peculiar character. The ear analyzed speech-sounds into their component groups of oscillations, and the resulting sensations were individually transmitted into consciousness. The psychological component of Boas’ theory was influenced by Gustav Fechner’s (1801–1887) psychophysics, and it was initially based on Herbartian psychology. This second component included mental representations (Vorstellungen) of sounds, the process of apperception, and Fechner’s law of thresholds (Schwellengesetz). Boas’ theory presupposed a model of the mind as machine in which the ear was seen as a mechanical extension of the mind. Within this mechanical model of the mind, the recognition of speech-sounds was deterministically governed by the law of thresholds and the process of apperception. The interaction of the law of thresholds with the process of apperception was responsible for the phenomenon of alternating sounds. With the help of his theory, Boas countered positions which considered such seemingly fluctuating sounds as the hallmark of ‘primitive’ languages. In order to distance himself from Heymann Steinthal’s (1823–1899) Eurocentric linguistics, which was rooted in the Herbartian tradition, Boas later abandoned his Herbartian framework in favor of an associationist theory of psychology.

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confidence: 92%

Franz Boas’ Theory of Phonetics

Mackert

1994

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Cross‐Language and Second Language Speech Perception

Bohn

2017

The Handbook of Psycholinguistics

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Franz Boas’ early northwest coast alphabet

Mackert

1999

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Summary During his work for the British Association for the Advancement of Science (BAAS), Franz Boas (1858–1942) designed a phonetic alphabet for the Native American languages of British Columbia in his correspondence with Horatio Hale (1817–1896), who had been entrusted with the supervision of Boas’ activities. This correspondence is of importance because it provides a record of the formation of Boas’ alphabet and documents Hale’s role in this process. Boas’ correspondence and linguistic publications on Inuftitut and Bella Coola which preceded his BAAS reports show that he was already familiar with the conventions used in the alphabets of Kleinschmidt (1851), Lepsius (1863), and Rink (1884, 1887–1891) when he began fieldwork for the BAAS. His letters to John W. Powell (1834–1902) and Hale give further testimony that he was also acquainted with the alphabets of F. M. Müller (1854), Powell (1880), and Techmer (1884). In his dialogue with Hale, Boas expressed his dissatisfaction with the existing transcription systems, which he considered impracticable or deficient. Boas envisioned a scientific phonetic alphabet based on his psycholinguistic theory of phonetics. He was particularly concerned with the accurate representation of schwa, of different series of fricatives and stops, and of so-called synthetic or alternating sounds, which he encountered in the Native American languages of British Columbia. Both Boas and Hale believed future work would not corroborate the existence of surd-sonants (voiceless-voiced sounds) as members of triple series of consonants consisting of surds, surd-sonants, and sonants. Boas did not deny the existence of surd-sonants, but, within his theory of phonetics, he considered them as sounds that were alternately apperceived as being voiced and voiceless. Boas’ first version of his BAAS alphabet and his introductory remarks to the phonetics of the Native American languages described in his BAAS reports show that practical considerations (simplicity, readability, quotability, and availability of types) and Boas’ psycholinguistic interpretation of surd-sonants took priority over the latter’s concerns for an accurate scientific transcription system.

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On Some Doubtful or Intermediate Articulations: An Experiment in Phonetics.

Cited by 4 publications

References 0 publications

Franz Boas’ Theory of Phonetics

Franz Boas’ Theory of Phonetics

Cross‐Language and Second Language Speech Perception

Franz Boas’ early northwest coast alphabet

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