The Phoneme

Unit 2

Tasks to Unit 1

1. Learn the following terms and word combinations. Check them out with the dictionary if necessary.

- phonetics

- a branch of linguistics

- the sound system of a language

- phoneme

- mutual adaptation

- phonetic investigation

- physics (acoustics)

- physiology

- special and general phonetics

- descriptive and historical phonetics

- articulatory phonetics

- acoustic phonetics

- auditory phonetics

- segmental and suprasegmental phonetics

- practical and theoretical phonetics

- interdisciplinary subjects

- sociolinguistics (sociophonetics)

- psycholinguistics

- mathematical linguistics

2. Give exhaustive answers to the following questions.

1)What does phonetics study?

2)Why does phonetics occupy a peculiar position in linguistics?

3)How is phonetics connected with the other branches of linguistics?

4)What does special phonetics study?

5)What does general phonetics study?

6)How can you specify the terms “descriptive” and “historical” phonetics?

7)What are the branches of phonetics pointed out according to the linguistic function of the speech organs? What do they study?

8)What is the domain of theoretical phonetics?

9)Who first introduced the functional or social aspect of phonetic phenomena?

10)How can you define the notion “phonology”?

11)What is N.S. Trubetskoy’s point of view on phonology?

12)What are the connections of phonetics with social sciences?

3. Try to cover the following point:

1)Phonetics as a branch of linguistics.

2)Branches of phonetics.

3)Relation of phonetics to social sciences.

1. The Phoneme. The Allophone. The Phone.

2. Notation (transcription).

3. The main trends in phoneme theory.

1. To begin with, compare the following:

t ie – d ie sea t – see d

We can clearly hear that [t] and [d] are 2 different sounds. ([t] – voiceless, fortis; [d] – is voiced, lenis)

In these pairs of words [ t] and [ d] contrast with each other to make a difference of meaning. But on the other hand, the sound [ t] in “let us” and “let them” is not the same, it is different.

let us – [t] is alveolar

let them – [t] is dental

In both examples (tie – die) + (let us – let them) the sounds differ in one articulatory feature. But the difference in the second example has no functional significance.

To differentiate between these 2 sounds phoneticians use 2 separate terms: “phoneme” means “sound” in its contrastive sense, and “allophone” means variants of one and same phoneme.

There exists a number of definitions of the phoneme.

The truly materialistic view of the phoneme was originated by the Soviet linguist L.V.Shcherba. According to L.V.Shcherba, the phoneme may be viewed as a functional, material and abstract unit. These 3 aspects are concentrated in the definition of the phoneme suggested by V.A.Vassiljev, who looks upon the phoneme as “…a dialectical unity of these aspects because they determine one another and are thus interdependent”.

V.A Vassiljev defined the phoneme like this: “The segmental phoneme is the smallest language unit (sound type) that exists in the speech of all the members of a given language community as such speech sounds, which are capable of distinguishing one word of the same language or one grammatical form of a word from another grammatical form of the same word”.

The only drawback of this definition is that it is too long and complicated for practical use.

M.A.Sokolova, P.M.Tihonova and some others give a more concise definition: “The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words”.

The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the meaning of morphemes, words and phrases:

bath – path;

said – says;

He was badly hur t – He was bally hear d.

This is the distinctive function of the phoneme.

The phoneme is realized in speech in the form of its allophones. The allophones of one and the same phoneme are not identical in their articulatory content, but there is some phonetic similarity between them.

The allophones which do not undergo any distinguishable changes in the speech chain are called principal.

E.g. In such words as darn, door, down, etc the sound [d] is not affected by the articulation of the following sounds, so it is the principal allophone.

At the same time, there are quite predictable changes in the articulation of allophones under the influence of the neighbouring sounds in different phonetic situations. Such allophones are called subsidiary.

E.g.	[d]	is slightly palatalized before front vowels and the sonorant [j] deal, day, did you
[d]	loses plosion before another stop (plosive) be dt ime, ba d p ain, goo d d og, etc
[d]	is pronounced with the nasal plosion before the nasal sonorant [m n]: sudden, admit could meet, etc; the plosion is lateral before the lateral sonorant [l]: middle, badly, bad light, etc
[d]	becomes post – alveolar when followed by [r]: dry, dream, etc; becomes dental when followed by [θð]: breadth, lead the way, good thing, etc
[d]	Becomes labialized when followed by [w]: dw ell, etc
[d]	In the initial position is partially devoiced (dog, dean); In the intervocalic position or when followed by a sonorant it is fully voiced (order, leader, driver); in the word – final position it is greatly devoiced (road, raised, old).

The articulatory differences between the given allophones are numerous, but all of them possess 3 articulatory features in common: they are forelingual lenis stops.

Allophones of the some phoneme never occur in similar phonetic contexts, they are predictable according to the phonetic environment and can’t differentiate meanings.

The phones which are realized in speech are modified by phonostylistic, dialectical and individual factors.

Phonemes are important for distinguishing meanings. But there is more to speaker – listener exchange than just the message itself. The listener may pick up a lot of into about the speaker: the locality he lives in, his social status, age, emotional state etc. This into comes not from phonemic distinctions but from phonetic ones.

The following scheme may be helpful:

So, allophones of each phoneme possess a number of distinctive features, all that makes this phoneme different from the other phonemes of the language. This functionally relevant number of articulatory features is called the invariant of the phoneme. Neither of the articulftory features that form the invariant of the phoneme can be changed without affecting the meaning.

All the allophones of the phoneme [d] are occlusive, forelingual, lenis.

a) If the occlusive articulation is changed for constrictive one, [d] will be replaced by [z]: bree d – bree z e; deal – zeal;

b) If the forelingual articulation is changed for the back lingual [d] will be replaced by [g]: dear – gear, day – gay;

c) If the lenis articulation is changed for the fortis, [d] will be replaced by [t]: dry – try; ladder – latter; bid – bit.

That is why occlusive, forelingual and lenis characteristics make up the invariant of the phoneme [d].

The articulatory features which form the invariant of the phoneme are called distinctive or relevant. The articulatory features which don’t serve to distinguish meaning are called non – distinctive or irrelevant. An aspirated p and non – aspirated p: that’s why aspiration is a non – distinctive feature of English consonants.

Naturally, anyone who studies a foreign language makes mistakes in articulation. L.V. Shcherba classifies the pronunciation errors as phonological and phonetic.

If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a different phoneme, it is a phonological mistake (as the meaning is affected).

If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme, it is a phonetic mistake (they create an accent).

II. The system of phonetic notations is generally termed as “transcription”. Transcription is a set of symbols representing speech sounds.

The International Phonetic Association (IPA) has given accepted values to an inventory of symbols.

The 1^st type of notation, the broad or phonemic transcription, provides special symbols for all the phonemes of a language.

The 2^nd type, the narrow or allophonic transcription, suggests special symbols including some information about particular allophonic features.

k^heit – skeit

let - teł

The broad transcription is mainly used for practical expedience (целесообразность), the narrow type serves the purposes of research work.

The striking difference among present – day broad transcriptions of British English is due to the varying significance which is attached to vowel quality and quantity. There are 2 kinds of broad transcription used for practical purposes in Russia.

The 1^st type was introduced by Daniel Jones. He realized the difference in quality as well as in quantity between the vowel sounds in the words

sit – seat

pot – port

pull – pool,

the neutral vowel [ə] and the vowel in the word earn. However, he aimed at reducing the number of symbols to a minimum, that’s why he used the same symbols for them:

i – i: o - o: u – u: ə - ə:

This kind of notation may cause phonological misunderstanding: the difference between the pairs of sounds may be wrongly associated with vowel length only, which is non – distinctive in modern English.

The other type of broad transcription, first used by V.A.Vassilyev, causes no phonological misunderstanding providing special symbols for all vowel phonemes

I i: e æ a: Λ)() o: ν u: з: ə

Being a good visual aid, this way of notation can be strongly recommended for teaching English pronunciation to any audience.

But phonemic representation is rather imprecise, as it gives too little info about the actual speech sounds. The narrow or phonetic transcription incorporates as much more phonetic info as the phonetician desires, or as he can distinguish.

It provides special symbols to denote not only the phoneme as a language unit but also its allophonic modifications.

k^h – ł (the indication of the hard variant to oppose the soft one – l)

This type of transcription is mainly used in research work.

Дата добавления: 2015-05-31