Glossary beginning with M

Click one of the letters above to go to the page of all terms beginning with that letter.

M

macrosyllable

"In bush-cricket songs with syllables of contrasting duration, a longer (more normal) syllable." [1]


References

mechanism

"(1) the apparatus by which sound is produced, e.g. strigil, plectrum, etc.;

(2) the meachanics of its utilization, e.g. friction, buckling, air-streams, etc. without reference to any relationship between this and the character of the sound;

(3) the process of translating the physical and biological properties of the apparatus and its mechanics into the physical parameters of sound (e.g. tooth impacts per second into impulses per second).

These three meanings are quite distinct, and usually "mechanism" only means one of them; but at different times it is used in any or all three senses. This appalling confusion can only be cleared up if we say apparatus when we mean apparatus (see therefore, phonative apparatus, sound-production apparatus); mechanics when we mean mechanics - or possibly just phonation, sound productionas they stand; and for sense (3), to avoid repeated circumlocution, use a neologism, for no single word already exists. The best candidate seems to be phonomorphosis, defined as in (3); it is a word neither ugly, complicated, hybrid, nor irregular, and has a clear stymological relationship to its utilization (phonomorphogenesis might indeed better suit the pedant, but its lengtheliminates it).

If these recommendations be accepted, mechanism itself will remain as an invaluable umbrella term for those ocntexts where more than one of the three aspects are to be encompassed by a single word." [1]


References

  1. Broughton WB. Glossarial Index. In: Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Elsevier; 1963.
mel

unit of pitch

Menzerath's law

Menzerath's law, or Menzerath–Altmann law (named after Paul Menzerath and Gabriel Altmann), is a linguistic law according to which the increase of the size of a linguistic construct results in a decrease of the size of its constituents, and vice versa.

MFCC

Nel-frequency cepstral coefficients

microsyllable

"In bush-cricket songs with syllables of ocntrasting duration, a shorter syllable, usually lasting less than 10ms." [1]


References

mirror

"An area of clear membrane in the male fore wings of a bush-cricket or true cricket." [1]


References

monaural

"deprecated hybrid for one-eared (q.v.) or single eared; properly, either uniaural (in contradistinction to binaural, for hearing); or platyphonic - or at worst, monophonic - (in contradistinction to stereophonic, for reproduction)." [1]


References

  1. Broughton WB. Glossarial Index. In: Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Elsevier; 1963.
monitor

"To listen to a sound picked up by a microphone and reproduced through headphones or loudspeaker, while making a recording of it." [1]


References

monopulsate

"illegitimate, see unipulsate." [1]


References

  1. Broughton WB. Glossarial Index. In: Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Elsevier; 1963.
motif

See motive

motive

"(music, preferable to motif): a figure, group of figures, or a phrase which has significance or is otherwise characteristic of a section, phrase, sentence or period. During the succession of the latter,a  motive recurs, varierd or unvaried, and therefore can give the whole succession - song - a cyclic impression (Sotavalta).

Armstrong uses teh term to describe the acoustic individuality of one, or perhaps two or more phrases. Thorpe uses it but little.

The differences are of degree, and not substantial at that." [1]


References

  1. Broughton WB. Glossarial Index. In: Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Elsevier; 1963.
multipulse

"deprecated for multipulsate." [1]


References

  1. Broughton WB. Glossarial Index. In: Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Elsevier; 1963.
multisyllabic

"hybrid for polysyllabic." [1]


References

  1. Broughton WB. Glossarial Index. In: Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Acoustic Behavior of Animals. Elsevier; 1963.

Go to top

Scratchpads developed and conceived by (alphabetical): Ed Baker, Katherine Bouton Alice Heaton Dimitris Koureas, Laurence Livermore, Dave Roberts, Simon Rycroft, Ben Scott, Vince Smith