ARCHITECTURE OF SOUND REPRESENTATIONS IN THE FRAMEWORK OF COGNITIVE PHONETIC RESEARCH
Abstract
The article focuses on one of the central and controversial concept in the contemporary phonetic experimental researches – sound representation. It is claimed that sound representations can be studied within the framework of cognitive paradigm that enables scientists to study segmental and suprasegmental units of the language system as indispensable parts of cognition and whose formation is conditioned by such cognitive mechanisms as: attention, memory and perception. The nature of sound representations is approached bearing in view cognitive operations that take part in coding and decoding of sound signals. The article suggests a structural overview of various phonetic theories to prove that there are relevant ties between segmental/ suprasegmental units and cognitive processes in the human mental system. The paper offers a grounded classification of contemporary phonetic approaches to study the cognitive mechanisms of sound information coding and decoding. The latter is divided into acoustic, articulatory and acoustic-visual approaches taking into consideration which cognitive operation is viewed as a fundamental to form the set of sound representations in the mind of a speaker. Architecture of sound representations is analyzed from the view point of diverse cognitive perspectives to build up a generalized classification of the most relevant opinions on this matter. Structural peculiarities of sound representations are described in reliance to the cognitive operations singled out in the framework of different approaches as triggers of sound information decoding and coding. Perception of sound signals is interpreted as an intricate dynamic process that is plunged into a certain linguistic context and activated by acoustic clues embedded in the cognitive system of a speaker. In this logic, sound representations are subdivided into two major classes: single-format and multi-format mental units. This distinction enables to give insight into stages underlying their formation and systematization in the cognition of a speaker. Single-format representations are defined as mental structures that emerge in psycho-acoustic realm of a speaker as a result of inborn acoustic clues activation in the process of communication. Multi-format sound representations are interpreted as dynamic hieratically organized mental units whose formation undergo vertically systemized stages that embrace the formation of universals, primitives and eventually sound clusters. The latter pertain a functionally conditioned “inner structure” that can be activated by cognitive mechanisms to build up utterances during discourse.
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