Category: pants

Here are the pants I promised you.

Way back when, long, long ago, I wrote a post about pants. The pants post. Actually, the “Pants!” post. Where I talked about the word pants, how I like saying “pants”, how pants is a funny word. And I, therein, made a promise to do some acoustic pants analysis:

When discussing pants, it’s also important to pronounce pants properly. I produce pants with very strong aspiration on the [p]. There seems to be a bit of difference in the vowel, too. I’ll plan to make some recordings so that I can do a bit of pants analysis.

It’s taken me a bit of time to get back to you with the promised pants. I hadn’t figured out a great way to incorporate soundfiles into my posts. And for a post on the particulars of pants production, one really neads to have an accompanying pants soundfile. Thanks to a new WordPress feature, I am now easily able to embed soundfiles. Even pants soundfiles. Especially pants soundfiles. I now promise you to include more pants soundfiles than ever before. This blog can become known as the one with pants.

So, here are the pants I promised you. The image below shows a screenshot of the soundfile pair_of_pants.wav displayed in praat, which I have additionally marked up a bit with arrows and such. The file pair_of_pants.wav contains two productions of the word pants, one “normal,” and one “funny.” (Before I tell you which is which, have a listen, and you be the judge. Listen to the pants yourself.)

Streamed version of pair_of_pants.mp3:

pair_of_pants.wav soundfile (can be downloaded):
pair_of_pants.wav

Figure 1: pair_of_pants.wav with accompanying Praat TextGrid, and some arrows and stuff
pair_of_pants_marked.jpg

The two productions of pants were spoken by a female native speaker of American English who was wearing pajama pants at the time of the recording. Each of the two versions of pants is of a similar length (roughly .7 seconds from the onset of the [p] burst), and produced in citation form with a similar f0 contour (H* L-L% in ToBI terms).

Okay, I have to run off to class now, without finishing my pants analysis. I hate to leave you hanging with my pants half done, but there it is. More indepth pants analysis is coming soon…

Pants!

Today marks a momentous occassion. I am wearing pants! Okay, I’ve worn pants in the past. Actually, that is what is momentous. I am wearing pants from my past. (PPP: Pre-pregnancy pants.) (And by the way, I’m referring to pants in the US vs. the UK sense.)

I like the word pants. I actually like saying the word pants. It’s one of those words that begs to be repeated. Pants. For example, in a discourse on pants, I would hypothesize that speakers would be less inclined to use pronouns to refer to pants than, say, other entities in the discourse. Even if the word pants had just been mentioned, I would still say “pants.” Consider the following pair of examples:

Speaker A: Have you seen my glasses? I need them.
Speaker B: I see that you are not wearing them. When did you last see them?

vs.

Speaker A: Have you seen my pants? I need my pants.
Speaker B: I see that you are not wearing pants. When did you last see your pants?

I consider the word pants to be an inherently funny word, and I know I’m not alone here. (A friend of mine considers pants to be the funniest word of the English language.) And I’m remembering a sketch from a short-lived show called The Vacant Lot called “Pants! The Musical.”

There is apparently a tradition (according to Wikipedia) of substituting the word pants for other words in lines from Star Wars. Here are some of my favorites listed on the cited website:

3. We’ve got to be able to get some reading on those pants, up or down.
6. I find your lack of pants disturbing.
12. Lock the door. And hope they don’t have pants.

It’s like MadLibs, but all pants!

When discussing pants, it’s also important to pronounce pants properly. I produce pants with very strong aspiration on the [p]. There seems to be a bit of difference in the vowel, too. I’ll plan to make some recordings so that I can do a bit of pants analysis.

Of course, pants is not the only inherently funny word. (I hope to collect some of them.) My favorite is actually squid. I try to use the word squid whenever possible. (And actually in some cases where it is not possible.)

Enough of this for now. I must get on with my pants. My squid is calling.