The limitations of phonetic symbols
Gillian Brown is someone whose work I am frequently returning to. I wrote a blog here recently. I quoted this (1990:7), and do so again:
the stretches of acoustic blur often not longer permit any representation on a segment-by-segment basis
She is talking about ‘private’ speech between people who know each other well, indulging in relaxed conversations. The type of speech that I envisage her talking about is stuff like this - the three syllables which precede ‘any’ - from Emily:
Or this - the three syllables which precede ‘wasn’t’ - from Bob:
I reckon that the chances of getting a phonetic transcription that experts would agree on is very small. The difficulty is inherent in the fact that a continuous stream of speech would have to be represented by symbols for separate events.
One Response to The limitations of phonetic symbols
I reckon you’re absolutely right!
Apropos your current pronsig discussion, the difficulty (nigh impossibility) is that the perception of the sounds themselves aren’t clear in real time (I think I got the first after 3 listenings) so how could any meaningful phonemic representation be possible?