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From: rickw@eskimo.com (Richard Wojcik)
Subject: Re: Power spectrum of phonemes?
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References: <AC7F815C966813DB1@yarn.demon.co.uk> <43kbsv$set@male.EBay.Sun.COM> <aldersonDF7sEy.3Ly@netcom.com> <rte-2209951437010001@mac-118.lz.att.com>
Date: Wed, 27 Sep 1995 05:22:02 GMT
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In article <rte-2209951437010001@mac-118.lz.att.com>,
Ralph T. Edwards <rte@elmo.lz.att.com> wrote:
>In article <aldersonDF7sEy.3Ly@netcom.com>, alderson@netcom.com wrote:
>
>> *phonemes* are either (1) a mental construct or (2) an artefact of
>> analytical grouping, depending on one's theoretical background and bias(es).
>> 
>Wait, are you saying that some people question that phonemes are real? 
>Some people dispute that reduction to a finite number of meaningfully
>different atomic subunits of speech is part of the way humans generate and
>decode speech? 
>
>Who makes such a bizarre claim? 

To call a phoneme a "mental construct" is not to dispute that it is real.
If you are talking about generating and decoding speech, then you are
talking about a psychological phoneme.  As Rich said, all of this depends
on your theoretical viewpoint.

>Incidentally use of phonemes is directly comparable to digital waveforms in
>information transmission between machines.  An infinite number of analog
>waveform shapes are mapped to a sequence of symbols, each of which is one
>of a finite number of siginificantly different symbols.

I doubt this.  Psychological phonemes might not have any physical
manifestation in the speech stream.  Whether or not you insist on phonemes
having a unique phonetic identity is, again, a matter of theoretical
viewpoint.  




-- 
Rick Wojcik  rickw@eskimo.com     Seattle (for locals: Bellevue), WA
             http://www.eskimo.com/~rickw/
