Active Articulator Model and Some Issues with the International Phonetic Alphabet

作者：Zhang Huili^*

来源：Language and Linguistics, 2010, 11(4): 653-678.

• active articulator
• gesture
• feature
• International Phonetic Alphabet

This article discusses ongoing issues regarding the International Phonetic Alphabet. First of all, the author is in agreement with Mai's 2005 criticism of classifying places of articulation according to active articulators, but this criticism goes not far enough. Problems with a description based on passive articulators need to be addressed as well and a new approach needs to be applied. Second, the active articulator model advocated by Sagey (1986), Ladefoged & Halle (1988), Halle (1992, 2003), and Duanmu (2009) is introduced to define distinctive features. After applying this model to two languages possessing seven places of articulation, it is shown to be powerful enough to distinguish the greatest number of place contrasts thus far attested. Finally, in comparison with the IPA, the active articulator model, in dealing with either simple or complex sounds, gives less ambiguous and more reasonable results, while allowing a new perspective on related issues.

• 出版日期2010-10
• 单位北京大学