ward@hao.UUCP (Mike Ward) (06/30/84)
[]
Is this more kgb!kremvax nonsense, or can they really consider
it legitimate science to torture animals to hear how they scream.
Were these experiments performed in today's Sweden, or in
Nazi Germany?
--
Michael Ward, NCAR/SCD
UUCP: {hplabs,nbires,brl-bmd,seismo,menlo70,stcvax}!hao!ward
BELL: 303-497-1252
USPS: POB 3000, Boulder, CO 80307leif@erix.UUCP (Leif Samuelsson) (07/09/84)
> > Transfered from QZCOM, Stockholm > Original: (Text 20629) 84-06-22 04.39 Hans Sj|berg KTHNET An extension of the Feuerfinkel reserch into the area of onomatopoetics. An experimental approach. By Stig G Svensson Since the untimely death of H N Feuerfinkel in 1894, there has been very little research directed towards the automatic-mechanical phonemicization of spoken utterances. As can be seen from the appearance of this little volume, dedicated to the memory of that great pioneer, whose inspiring work marked a new departure in the field of linguistics, there has been a renewed interest in this, until now sadly neglected, area in the science of phonetics. My own contribution will report on some experimental data drawn from an investigation with an extended version of Feuerfinkel's renowned tribute to science, the remarkable phoneto-phonemic transformer, PPT (perhaps more generally known as the "phonemic pump"). The present research is aimed at the discovery of the correct orthographic renderings of non-linguistic sounds. Obviosly, these representations will differ between languages, and these discrepancies are also the subject for scrutiny by the present author. In his work "Zukunftige Entwicklung der Lautforshung mit der Hilfe des Sprachlaut-Sprachtyp-Umvandlers" Feuerfinkel has already clearly pointed out that the PPT could possibly be used for representing sounds other than speech-sounds in a kind of phonemic transcription. He recognized, however, that his colleagues in the field were not yet ready to accept these novel thoughts, and consequently he wrote: "Doch scheint es also ob man dieses, nichtsprachlische Aspekt des Umwandlers nicht zu einer unmittelbaren Verwendung bringen kann. Dagegen, wenn die Zeit fuer diese Entwicklung reife sein wird, wird sie ohne Zweifel seinen rechten Platz in das Gebau des Sprachwissen- schafts einnehmen." (Ueber die Gleichnisse und Ungleichnisse zwischen Sprache und Nicht-Sprache, 1892) Since the days of Feuerfinkel the development in society at large has ultimately made it untenable ignoring his suggestions of an automatic procedure for eliciting phonemic transcriptions of non-speech sounds. There is the large field of pictorial-orthographical representations of sequences of actions (commonly known as "comic strips"), in which a multitude of ortographical sequences apparently are attemting to represent extralaryngeal sounds, such as the sound of a body acted upon with physical violence (sock), the sound of an object , brought into rapid contact with a liquid surface (splash), or the sound of a gun emitting a lead bullet (blam). Since the latest development in linguistics has shown the need for explanatory adequacy in the treatment of phenomena of sounds and lan- guage, we cannot be satisfied with the obvious adhocicity of the repre- sentations commonly used. Instead, we have to search for the repre- sentations that symbolize the intuition about these sounds in a speaker belonging to a given language community. As Feuerfinkel stated it: "Die verschiedene Qualitaeten der aussermenschlischen Lautverhaelt- nisse duerfen wir nicht zu lange ununtersucht und unsystematiziert bleiben lassen." (ibid.) The present experiments utilized a multi-modified formant-filtered PPT-16X with internal delta-modulation (for a detailed desciption and technical data, see Sauerkraut und Kopfloch: Teknische Ausnuetzungen der SSU-Ide'e, 1972). The pitch range and intensity range were extended by the Ferguson-Smith method. Three filterunits were used simultaneously: Sw-14TP (for Swedish), En-11TD (for English) and Fr-18TX (for French). The use of internal delta-modulation makes it possible to use the synthesis-by-analysis method (a slight modification from a device in- vented by Stevens and Halle). Experiment 1. A stone, weighing 1.2 kg was thrown into a barrel filled with water. The surface of the water was 65.4 cm above floor level, the total volume of water was 93.8 liters. By means of a little catapult mechanism the velocity of the stone and the angle between the water and the surface and the direction of the stone could be held constant throughout the three repetitions of the experiment. Results: Swedish English French 1st time flaepps plosh touche 2nd time klamp slacks closque 3rd time klou'ms clams chouche Mean value klams plaps couche Experiment 2. The experimentor broke the left hind leg of a cat (or, rather three cats) (Felix vulgus). The results from the 2nd session in the experiment were not included into the mean value, since the animal i question was not being cooperative and, in fact, caused the experimenter some quite deep flesh wounds, besides ruining the test result. Results: Swedish English French 1st time krick pack bric 2nd time jaevla katt yev lucutt hie`ve la catte 3rd time prytt crock pric Mean value kryck prack pric Experiment 3. A steel chair, weighing 5.3 kg, occupied by a person weighing 78.6 kg was pushed along the surface of a plastic treated floor (type Silex) a length of 8.4 cm. The mean value for Swedish had to be adjusted since it would have been ruled out by filter C in the filter unit (see fig). Results: Swedish English French 1st time kris teek sise 2nd time skrit scree cri 3rd time sik kees sique Mean value skit stees siche adj. mean value skrik Experiment 4. A dog (Canis vulgus) was made to vocalize by the experimenter's throwing the above-mentioned stone (1.2 kg) on the tail of the animal (from a safe distance, as to not remake the mistake from experiment 2). Results: Swedish English French 1st time orr-orr roo-roo rore-rore 2nd time varf-varf weff-weff oarf-oarf 3rd time uff-uff urf-urf uffe-uffe mean value orv-orv off-off roffe-roffe Conclusions The experiments have shown that it is indeed possible to render objectively the written equivalents of all types of sounds with an amazing degree of consistency. Naturally, this method needs developing, but even at this preliminary stage of research, it seems evident that this approach is a far more rational one than that employed by the authors of "comic strips". It is to be hoped that the ad-hocicity and inconsistency that is now prevailing will have to yield to a more objective analysis, so that in the future we will meet only PPT-tested onomatopoetic forms in literature. Figure: ---------------------------------- Filter unit ! ! ------------------------------ ----------------- ! C. Detection of sequences ! ! Output ! ! identical with or res- !---- ----------------- ! embling indecent words ! ! ! - - - - - - - - - - - - - -! ! ! B. Detection of impossible! ! ! combinations of sounds !----! ! - - - - - - - - - - - - - -! ! ! A. Detection of impossible! ! ! sounds !----! ------------------------------ ! ! ! ! ----------- ---------- ! ! choosing! !deciding! ! !of wowels! !of place! --------------- ----------- ---------- ! Readjustment! ! ! ! rules ! ----------- ----------- --------------- !Formant ! !deciding ! ! !tracking ! !of manner! ! ----------- !or atri- ! ! ! !culation ! ! ! !for con- ! ! ! !sonants ! ! ! ----------- ! ! ! ! ----------------------------- ! ! Preliminary analysis !--- ----------------------------- ! sound wave