What are Linguistic Sounds Made Of?

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Authors: Peter Ladefoged
Cited by: 0

Abstract

Linguistic phonetic aspects of languages can be described in terms of about 17 articulatory parameters, and/or a similar number of acoustic parameters. Descriptions of phonological patterns in languages involve features that are not in a one-to-one relationship with these phonetic parameters, and that cannot account for some linguistic phonetic differences among languages. Speakers and listeners producing and interpreting linguistic events probably use something like the proposed phonetic parameters. There is no necessity for most phonological features to be part of mental representations. *

Fields of Study & Subjects

Phonetics and Phonology Research Multisensory perception and integration Neuroscience and Music Perception

Publication details

Pages
191–210
Publication date
6 January 2026
Language
EN
Document type
Book chapter