Morphemes Cheremes Phonemes Articulators

[Dan Parvaz]

> Phonology is interested in the rules governing the structure of the
> output. So the use of "phonemes" meaning "smallest meaningless units"
> for both sign and spoken language will be fine, because the emphasis
> will be on the relations between these units, not the form of them.

Agreed. Phonology is a level of abstraction. However, not all phonology is
divorced from the movement of the articulators (and hencethe production of
the signal). Articulatory phonology (Browman and Goldstein) is primarily
concerned with the changes in certain tract variables (glottis aperture,
opening of lips, aperture beween tounge tip and point of articulation,
etc.) in describing phonemic-level operations.

And there's nothing really wrong with using "phonetics" in referring to
sign production. After all, we talk about sign LANGUage, right? :-)

Cheers,

Dan.