articulation (n.)

The general term in PHONETICS for the physiological movements involved in modifying an airflow to produce the various types of speech sounds, using the VOCAL TRACT above the LARYNX. Sounds are classified in terms of their PLACE and MANNER OF ARTICULATION in the vocal apparatus (the articulatory apparatus). Reference is usually made to the nature of the AIRSTREAM MECHANISM, the action of the VOCAL FOLDS, the position of the soft PALATE, and the other organs in the mouth – TONGUE and lips in particular. Any specific part of the vocal apparatus involved in the production of a sound is called an articulator. Two kinds of articulators are distinguished: ‘active’ articulators are the movable parts of the vocal apparatus, such as the lips, tongue and lower jaw; ‘passive’ articulators are those parts of the vocal tract which cannot move, but which provide the active articulators with points of reference, e.g. the roof of the mouth, the upper teeth.

The study of articulation using instrumental techniques has emphasized the importance of seeing articulation not as a sequence of independently articulated sounds but as a continuum of sound production. This principle is obscured through the use of phonetic TRANSCRIPTION. The transcription [kæt] suggests the existence of three DISCRETE segments: what it obscures is the existence of the TRANSITIONS between segments, as the several articulators, working simultaneously, gradually move from one articulatory position to the next. Forms of transcription which draw attention to these continuously varying (DYNAMIC) parameters are devisable, but they are complex, and lack the immediate readability of the SEGMENTAL transcription.

Several types of articulation can be distinguished. Most sounds are produced with a single point of articulation. Sounds may, however, be produced involving two points of articulation (COARTICULATION), in which case two articulatory possibilities emerge: the two points of articulation both contribute equally to the identity of the sound (double articulation or co-ordinate coarticulation); or one point of articulation may be the dominant one (the primary (co-)articulation), the other having a lesser degree of stricture (the secondary (co-)articulation). Examples of secondary articulation are PALATALIZATION, VELARIZATION, PHARYNGEALIZATION and LABIALIZATION.

There is a second use of the phrase double articulation, within the linguistic theory associated with the French linguist André Martinet (1908–99). He used the term to refer to the two LEVELS of STRUCTURE in which LANGUAGE is organized: speech can be analyzed into the meaningful FORMS of language (i.e. MORPHEMES, WORDS, etc.), and this constitutes a ‘first’ articulation; these units are then capable of further analysis into the meaningless sound units of language (i.e. PHONEMES), and this constitutes a ‘second’ articulation. A corresponding term in more widespread use is DUALITY OF STRUCTURE.