Individual features in voice quality

Abstract

CHAPTER 1: We know little more about voice quality now than was known in phonetic theory a century ago. But it can be argued that there is an intimate and crucial relationship between voice quality and phonetic quality, the prime datum of spoken language: phonetic theory,, as part of general linguistic theory, should be able to offer a scientific analysis of voice quality, in order to clarify this relationship, as well as to be able to understand some of the factors that distinguish the voices of different speakers. An approach to such an analysis is initiated in this chapter by constructing a semiotic typology of conventional labels for voices, which leads on to a theoretical discussion of the principles, both impressionistic and scientific, on which different types and aspects of voice quality can be classified.

CHAPTER 2: The history of the analysis of voice quality is discussed, from the tine of Cicero and Quintilian to the present day., with emphasis on the period from the beginning of the seventeenth century onwards.

CHAPTER 3: A phonetic system for the description of voice quality is put forward, in terms of both physiological and acoustic parameters. A descriptive phonetic terminology is proposed. An experiment to establish the feasibility of synthesising different voice qualities by means of a resonance analogue speech synthesiser (PAT) is reported, and an illustrative tape recording of seventy two different synthetic voice qualities is provided.

CHAPTER 4: The place of voice quality in a semiotic analysis of spoken communication is discussed. Two particular areas are covered: the indication by voice quality factors of physical, psychological and social attributes of a speaker; and the particular semiotic, relation between voice quality and phonetic quality., with discussion of the consequences of this relation not only for general linguistic theory, but also for the facilitation of improved techniques of analysis in areas of current interest in sociological linguistics concerning social differentiation by language, in urban dialectology.