phonic substance

A term used by some PHONETICIANS and LINGUISTS to refer to speech seen as a set of physically definable ACOUSTIC, ARTICULATORY or AUDITORY properties. The importance of this notion is that it constitutes an empirical datum to which theories of LANGUAGE must ultimately relate. To be plausible, an account of the English sound SYSTEM, for example, needs to correlate well with the PHONETIC facts (as defined in acoustic, articulatory or auditory terms); and ‘phonic’ (or ‘phonetic’) substance is a convenient label to summarize this physical level of investigation. The analogous term for the written language is GRAPHIC SUBSTANCE.