Saussure's équivalence sémiologique in the case study of Czech sonants

What is it about?

This is part of a larger project investigating relations between phonology and semiotics. In this paper I concentrate on semiotic aspects of the so called syllabic consonants (consonantal beats in the Beats-and-Binding terminology), using some of the insights on these phonemic entities proposed e.g. by Tobias Scheer and Ferdinand de Saussure. I explore the difference between the realization of clusters of the type consonant-liquid -consonant in Czech and Polish language, in word initial, word medial and word final position. The analysis is done using Praat program, casting the results in wider, Jakobsonian perspective. In other words, I look at auditory sign phenomologically as if it was a pictoral sign. The results give support to the semiotic and chord-like aspect of a phoneme.

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Why is it important?

The unique is a combination of semiotic and phonetic perspective, reunitng again as phonology. Readers familiar with semiotics might see how phonetics is not only a computer generated series of automatic conclusions, but it can also say a lot about the nature of human communication. On the other hand, readers familiar with phonetic analysis might see a wider application of a particular computer application.