A comparison of internal prevocalic and internal postvocalic consonant production with peripheral prevocalic and peripheral postvocalic consonant production

No Thumbnail Available
Authors
Greenburg, David E.
Advisor
Issue Date
1970
Keyword
Degree
Thesis (M.A.)
Department
Other Identifiers
Abstract

The investigator attempted to examine the possibility of internalization as a variable of consonant production by determining whether or not the production of consonant phonemes as they appeared peripherally, prevocalic or postvocalic, differed from the production when those consonant phonemes appeared internally, prevocalic or postvocalic. Stated as a hypothesis: It was hypothesized that the internalization of consonant phonemes, prevocalic or postvocalic, would not affect the production of those phonemes.The speech and hearing clinician has relied upon his test of articulation as basic to a battery for diagnosis, evaluation, and case selection. Due to the importance of this instrument, the author felt it worth while to examine one avenue which might lead to more effective testing of articulation, while still using pictured stimuli.There were several marketed instruments for evaluating articulation. Although the specific pictures used for stimuli on these tests differed, one trait common to most was the testing of consonant speech elements in words in the initial (peripheral prevocalic), medial (internal prevocalic or internal postvocalic), and final (peripheral postvocalic) positions.The examiner felt that traditional articulation tests in which the subject verbalized one word per speech event may not have always given an accurate picture of the articulation difficulty in connected speech.The phoneme examined on those teats in the peripheral prevocalic position (initial) was not preceded by adjacent speech sounds, as when that phoneme appeared in connected speech. At the same time, phonemes being examined in the peripheral postvocalic position (final,) were not followed by adjacent sounds as in connected speech. Thus, a test of articulation in which a speech sound was considered initially, medially, and finally, did, by those classifications, test the sound two of the three times in positions, initial (peripheral prevocalic) and final (peripheral postvocalic), in which it least frequently appeared in connected speech. At the same time, the sound tested medially (internally) was either prevocalic or postvocalic, but no consideration was given as to which was being tested. It seemed to the examiner that, while still using a pictured, single-word stimulus, examining the production of an identified internal prevocalic element might yield a production more similar to that in connected speech. Similarly, when using a single-word stimulus, testing an internal postvocalic element was expected to show more clearly the production of that element in connected speech than did examining the production as final (peripheral postvocalic).The purpose of the study was to determine whether or not internalization did affect the production of the tested consonant phonemes, and at the same time, to determine whether or not testing them peripherally was adequate. The investigator felt that considering the production of consonant phonemes usually in peripheral positions, with the explanation that they were prevocalic and postvocalic, might have been inadequate. There appeared to be little discussion pertinent to the effect of internalization upon the production of consonant phonemes.

Collections