Articulation Basis of the Language

The Copenhagen School

This trend is represented by L. Hjelmslev who claims an utter estrangement between phonetics and phonology. He says: “That language is a system of signs seems a priori an evident and fundamental proposition”. A language is a system of signs, a code like any other code that is used by a human community. A language is a structure, a semiotic (a system of signs), and we might be able to understand its structure better if we knew more about the specific structure of non-linguistic semiotics.

The Copenhagen trend represents all linguistic phenonema as a series of “relations” and “mathematical “ratios”. R. Jakobson considers that “each venture to reduce language to its ultimate invariants, by means of a mere analysis of their distribution in the text and with no reference to their empiric correlates, is condemned to failure”.

Questions:

1. What are the main functions of a phoneme?

2. What is B. de Courtenay’s approach to phoneme?

3. What definition did he give to a phoneme?

4. What approach to a phoneme did Scerba stick to?

5. What is the essence of the theory of phonemic variants and the theory of phonemic independence?

6. What is the essence of de Sassure’s theory of oppositions?

7. What are the main points of Trubetzkoy theory?

8. What is Jones’s theory of phoneme called?

9. What is language compared to in American School?

10. Who are the representatives of American phonological School?

11. What is the definition of a language given by Copenhagen School?

Lecture 3

1. Articulation Basis of the Language.

2. Principles of classification of speech sounds

3. Classification of English consonants and vowels.

4. The Diphthong Theory.

5. The assimilation in English.

Every nation that speaks a certain language has definite and quite obligatory ways of the articulation of the sounds. Sometimes these ways coincide in different languages but more often they are different. The habitual way of the articulation of all the sounds of a definite language is called by the term the articulation basis of the language. The articulation basis of English differs from that of Russian: voiced consonants are less energetic, whereas voiceless ones are much more energetic; the lips do not protrude; the tongue is slightly drawn back. The phonation habits of the native speakers of different languages may differ depending on character of sounds. In all languages speech sounds are traditionally divided into two main types – vowels and consonants.

From the articulatory point of view the main principles of the division are as follows:

1. the presence or absence of obstruction;

2. the distribution of muscular tension;

3. the force of the stream of air coming from the lungs.

Vowels are speech sounds based on voice which is modified in the supralaringal cavities. There is no obstruction in their articulation. The muscular tension is spread evenly throughout the speech organs. The force of the stream of air is rather weak. Acoustically, a vowel is a musical sound, it is formed by means of periodic vibrations of the vocal cords in the larynx. The quality of a sound depends on the shape and the size of the resonance chamber. In the case of vowels, the resonance chamber is always the same – the supralaryngal cavities. However, the shape and size of the chamber may vary, depending on different positions of the tongue, slight alterations in the back wall of the pharynx, the positions of palate and the lips.

Consonants are speech sounds in the articulation of which there is an obstruction, the removal of which causes noise, plosion or friction. The muscular tension is concentrated at the place of obstruction. The stream of air is strong. The articulatory boundary between vowels and consonants is not well-marked. There exist speech sounds that occupy an intermediate position between vowels and consonants. These are sonorants [m, n, n, l, w, r]. The wide passage for the stream of air in the articulation of sonorants means that the oral and nasal cavities are active.

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