Fonologia ecossistêmica

Abstract

Studies on language sounds have traditionally approached human speech and its patterning from two distinct views: that of a biomechanical and physical activity, with the articulators moving continually through time provoking acoustic results that are perceived by the human ear (phonetics); and that of a mental and cognitive activity, in which a sequence of sounds limited by the language inventory is chosen to produce meaning (phonology). However, with the premise that language is an ecosystem whose behavior emerges from the interaction of its various elements in a holistic fashion, it is impossible to dissociate these two apparently distinct fields, since they both compose a single system. This paper explores the theoretical assumptions of Ecosystemic Linguistics and of Dynamic Systems Theory to argue in favor of an Ecosystemic Phonology in which traditional phonetics and phonology are viewed as two descriptive dimensions, microscopic and macroscopic, of a single system. In order to do so, this paper aims to demonstrate that the Articulatory Gesture plays the role of smallest phonological unit more effectively than the phoneme, for it incorporates both dimensions in a single unit as it bears a dynamic, emergent, holistic, non-linear and implementational nature.