target (n.)

A term used in PHONETICS and PSYCHOLINGUISTICS to refer to a hypothetical ARTICULATORY state used as a reference point when describing SPEECH PRODUCTION in DYNAMIC terms. In CONNECTED SPEECH, the target articulatory features for a sound (e.g. ALVEOLAR, VOICING) may not be fully attained, because of the anticipatory influence of successive target articulations. The target MODEL postulates an idealized set of articulatory positions and a set of RULES which attempt to predict actual patterns of articulatory movement, taking into account such factors as speed of articulation, and the direction and distance between articulators. Similarly, models of SPEECH PERCEPTION have been proposed which use the construct of an auditory target, which enables the listener to identify the common factors in different ACCENTS, VOICE QUALITIES, etc. The term is also used in the description of speech SEGMENTS as a linear combination of a limited set of vectors (‘targets’), the temporal contribution of each target being expressed by an interpolation function.

The LANGUAGE (or VARIETY, etc.) which is the focus of a linguistic process of change is known as the target language, e.g. the language into which one is translating or interpreting, the language (or variety, etc.) being taught to foreign learners, and so on.

In TRANSFORMATIONAL GRAMMAR, the CONSTITUENT affected by a transformation is sometimes referred to as the target. For example, the target for WH-MOVEMENT can be a NOUN PHRASE, as in How many parcels will he send to London?, a PREPOSITIONAL phrase, as in In which book did you read about it?, or certain other kinds of phrase. A similar use is found in GENERATIVE PHONOLOGY, where a rule can be triggered by one segment (the ‘trigger segment’) so as to apply to another (the ‘target segment’).