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LINA MURINIENĖ
Vilnius University
Research areas: dialectology, phonetics, language policy, geolinguistics.
DOI: doi.org/10.35321/all91-15
Evaldas Švageris, Jolita Urbanavičienė
THE INTERACTION AND HIERARCHY OF FACTORS DETERMINING THE FORMANT STRUCTURE AND DURATION OF LITHUANIAN VOWELS
Vilnius: Institute of the Lithuanian Language, 2024, 126 pp.
DOI https://doi.org/10.35321/e-pub.109.balsiu-veiksniai-hierarchija
ISBN 978-609-411-372-7
In 2024, the Institute of the Lithuanian Language published the scholarly study by Evaldas Švageris and Jolita Urbanavičienė, The Interaction and Hierarchy of Factors Determining the Formant Structure and Duration of Lithuanian Vowels¹. The study consists of a preface, an introduction, three main parts of the research, the first of which is devoted to discussing the methodology, while the second and third review the results of the research itself; this is followed by conclusions, a list of the literature and sources used, an English-language summary, and appendices.
The authors modestly call the research they conducted exploratory. In fact, the study under discussion has looked more deeply than merely “glancing over new horizons in the study of speech sounds”; from several perspectives, it tests a new research methodology (two-factor analysis of variance
analysis, the so-called ANOVA), and this is one of the most important achievements of the study under discussion.
Recently, pure linguistics has become scarce, and not only in Lithuania. Most language research is today blended with the especially popular sociological perspective, and this is understandable—what is science worth without connections to society and its attitudes? Yet if that same society wants artificial intelligence to speak Lithuanian, and not merely speak it but communicate fluently, recognizing the subtlest nuances of sounds and intonations, pure language research, and in this case phonetic research, is essential.
Drawing on Björn Lindblom’s idea of language invariance (stated briefly, its essence consists of two opposing directions of language change: on the one hand, language moves toward simplicity and ease; on the other hand, language tends to preserve, and sometimes even increase, its informational load), E. Švageris and J. Urbanavičienė take on the challenge of “finding those phonetic features of language elements (vowels, consonants, etc.) that would not be dependent on context.” In the study under discussion, the vowels of the standard language are examined not individually, but by seeking the interaction of the formant structure and duration of vowels and the factors determining these indicators, as well as their interactional and hierarchical relationships.
By performing a two-factor analysis of variance (ANOVA), the researchers determine the relative effect of each competing factor on the formant structure and duration of vowels; after statistically evaluating that effect, they identify the strongest relationships and establish the hierarchical relationship of the competing factors (consonantal environment, speakers, position in the phrase, and vowel quality and quantity).
Probably most experimental phoneticians of the older generation—the so-called Alekso Girdenio and Antano Pakerio school—would scarcely imagine a statistical evaluation of the data obtained without Student’s criterion. In E. Švageris and J. Urbanavičienė’s study, that criterion is no longer sufficient. The search for a statistical model for such complex experimental studies, which are still only being methodologically tuned, deserves every kind of praise.
An entire part of the study is devoted to research methodology. It presents an extensive overview of experimental studies of the vowels of standard Lithuanian and the latest studies of other languages. As already mentioned, E. Švageris and J. Urbanavičienė’s aim is not to examine separately the linguistic factors determining the principal sound features, but to analyze the “interaction of all these factors, revealing the mechanism of linguistic variability.”
ANOVA is presented in detail in a separate chapter of the methodological section. As appropriate, the researchers place it in the global context of experimental sound research (the index by Toni Rietveld and Rolando van Hout is worth mentioning), and discuss how the statistical model mentioned above has so far been applied in Lithuanian-language research (the works of Eglė Vaišetaitė, Asta Kazlauskienė, and others are worth mentioning). Through their research, E. Švageris and J. Urbanavičienė seek to demonstrate that, by applying the ANOVA model, the interaction of linguistic factors can
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Evaldas Švageris, Jolita Urb anavičienė. The Interaction and Hierarchy of Factors Determining the Formant Structure and Duration of Lithuanian Vowels
be examined in two ways: (1) by investigating the interaction of two factors without taking other factors into account, and (2) by analyzing the interaction of two factors under conditions of direct competition. The linguistic factors examined by the researchers that influence the qualitative and quantitative parameters of vowels are: consonantal environment, speaker, position in the phrase (isolated and non-isolated), the phonological quantity, frontness/backness, and height of the vowel itself, without overlooking the interaction of these factors and their hierarchy.
The English-language summary is relatively detailed and informative. It presents the essence of the research, the main problems, and the ways of solving them to foreign readers in a fairly coherent manner.
It is a pleasure to read the study under discussion—it shows that research on the phonetics of standard Lithuanian is continuing not only in Kaunas but also in Vilnius. Particularly welcome are the search for newer methodologies, the resolve to venture into research on natural speech flow, and the desire—and at the same time the duty—to contribute to the development of language technologies.
The publication of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, Acta Linguistica Lituanica, is issued twice a year. It publishes articles and reviews on issues in Lithuanian and Baltic linguistics. In addition, attention is devoted to Lithuanian and Baltic philology, as well as comparative and general linguistics.
Acta Linguistica Lituanica the research journal of the Institute of the Lithuanian Language, is issued twice a year. It publishes articles and reviews of Lithuanian and Baltic linguistics. Some attention is also paid to Lithuanian and Baltic philology as well as comparative and general linguistics.
Articles, reviews, insights, and suggestions for publications to be reviewed should be sent to the editorial board through the electronic publishing system http://journals.iki.lt/.
Please submit your articles, reviews, insights to the editorial board via the electronic publishing system http://journals.iki.lt/.
