Phoneme. Various approaches

Pitch

Aspiration.

Voice.

Speech sounds containing voice (vowels, voice consonants and sonorants) are produced by vibrating vocal cords, but voiceless consonants are produced with no vibration. Though the vocal cords are wide apart and don’t impede the breath.

The voice – voiceless distinction between words is rather unreliable as voicing can be full and partial and even totally lacking (e.g. in the words ‘table’, ‘tidy’, ‘ago’ [b, d, g] are fully voiced, because they are surrounded by speech sounds containing voice), but in initial positions voicing doesn’t go right through.

Before a pose in ‘side’ [d] has no voicing, after a pose in ‘Ben’ [b] has no voicing at all. In the difference between ‘side’ and ‘site’ the weight is on the fortis – lenis feature. That is voiceless consonants are more strongly articulated while voiced consonants are more weakly articulated.

The lugs may push air out more vigorously or less vigorously for a particular sound sounds with greater pressure are fortis. And those with less pressure are lenis.

Voiceless consonants such as [p], [t], [k], [tò] can be aspirated in certain positions. When the tip of the tongue leaves the alveolar ridge to release (e.g. /t/ in the word "two") puff of air, the vocal cords don't start to vibrate immediately, there's a short period when breath is flowing out of the mouth cavity more or less unimpeded. This is aspiration.

Aspiration for [d] in the word ‘do’ on the other hand there is no aspiration since the vocal cords start vibrating either before * or immediately it takes place. In the words 'pepper' 'totter' 'kicker' the 2nd plosive in each word has little or no aspiration because it is followed by an unstressed vowel, whereas the first is heavily aspirated. After ‘s’ none of them has aspiration. In other accents aspiration may be heavier than in RP, e.g. in Cockney initial ‘p’, ‘t’, ‘k’, are very heavily aspirated and ‘t’ in particular may be realized as an affricate. That is instead of the explosion, being followed by more or less unimpeded breath it's followed by a clear fricative segment like /s/ (RP: 'tar' /t^ha:/ Cockney: /tsa:/

On the other hand in some accents of Lancashire and Scotland aspiration may be totally lacking.

The glottis is open during the explosion and the vocal cords come into contact at the end of the explosion. Thus part of air escapes between the plosive and the following vowel, causing aspiration

Differences in the rate of vibration (скорость вибраций) correspond to differences in pitch (высота основного тона): the slower the rate – the lower the pitch, the higher the rate – the lighter the pitch. The rate of 70 vibrations per second corresponds to a very low note in a male voice. And 1000 vibrations per second give a high note in a female voice. The vocal cords are typically longer and heavier in the adult male then in the female. And therefore vibrate at lower rates. Though obviously there are variations of range (высотный интервал, диапазон) for both males and females.

The musculature of the vocal cords is something that can be made longer or shorter and also thicker or thinner, length and thickness produce slower vibrations and lower pitches, shortness and thinners produce faster vibrations and higher pitches. Our control of rate of vibration and therefore of pitch is very sensitive and we make use of it very extensively in language. A brief example of the kind of views is the difference in between “not once” (never) said as categorical reply to the question “Have you seen him?” and “not once” (many times). In the first case the vocal cord vibration changes from rapid to slow and then from slow to rapid and the pitch falls and then rises.

1. ^\Thank you

2. _/Thank you

In the first case the pitch falls from high to law, the vocal cords vibration changes from rapid to slow and it is a sincere gratitude for a significant thing done.

In the second case the pitch rises from law to mid and the vocal cords vibration changes from slow to rapid and it is a matter of fact gratitude for a small thing done.

It won’t hurt

1. Soothing

2. Categorical

3. Irritated

In the first case (1) the pitch pattern shows encouragement rather than factual prediction. It is a brave attempt to soothe us, to relax us. If the pattern is (2) it is much more factual, perhaps on objection to the likely ineffectiveness of some punitive measures. (3) Introduces a critical note. So “What are you making such a fuss about it”. These are certainly significant differences.

1. “I won’t pay for ^\anything”

2. “I won’t pay for ^Vanything”

(1) Means he’ll pay for nothing. In this case pitch of ‘anything’ falls from high to low. (2) Means he won’t pay for rubbish. And the pitch on ‘anything’ falls from high to low and then it rises from low to med.

1. “I won’t do it if you ^\order me to”

2. “I won’t do it if you ^Vorder me to”

(1) Means ‘even if’ and the pitch falls from high to low on ‘order’

(2) Means your ordering me prevents my doing it. And the pitch falls from high to low and then rises from low to high on ‘order’.

Tone	Logical meaning	Emotional expression
Fall	Finality	Indifference, categorical statement, sadness, interest, dissatisfaction
Rise	Lack of finality	Warmth, sympathy, hesitation, doubt, surprise
Fall-rise	Implication	Hint
Rise fall	Contrast, opposition	Objection, great interest

Tone

Pitch

Vocal chord vibration rate

Pitch may perform exactly the same demarkative function as a pause. The difference between “I don’t, no” and “I don’t know” as answer for the question “Do you like sweets?” lies in the pitch which operates on whole utterances. In (1) the pitch on ‘don’t’ falls from high to low. In (2) the pitch on ‘don’t’ doesn’t change and it is high.

1. “My _/brother who’s abroad has sent me a letter”

2. “My ^\brother who’s abroad has sent me a letter”

The two types can be distinguish by pitch. (1) means ‘he’s the only brother a have’ and the pitch rises from low to med. (2) means ‘I have other brothers’ and the pitch is high and doesn’t change.

1. “_/Snakes which are poisonous should be avoided”

2. “^/Snakes which are poisonous should be avoided”

The first sentence implies that all snakes are poisonous which is false. And the pitch rises from law to med. The second sentence implies that only some snakes are poisonous which is true. And the pitch on ‘snakes’ is high and doesn’t change.

Scholars distinguish pitch phonemes that is minimal functionally contrastive units of pitch. Say a word with one pitch phoneme, and it would have a different meaning from the same word uttered with a different pitch phoneme. An example would be the word ‘yes’ said with a firm tone of voice as a paused to a doubtful one. The two tones involved would be different. And the difference would be explained by saying that different combinations of pitch phonemes here being used. The unit called ‘toneme’ refers to features of pitch which could cause a word to alter on meaning completely.

5/10/09 Lecture 5.

A phonetic description of speech data is a necessary first step to any kind of analysis of a language. The next step is to sort out which sounds are important for causing differences in meaning and which are not and to establish rules to account for the variations in sound involved. It is the theory and procedures of doing this which have developed into that branch of linguistics known as phonology. Phonologically language is not just randomly articulated human noise, but it is patterned noise sound with organization. Out of the total range of audibly distinctive sounds a human being can produce, only a limited number are used in any one language.

We can take 2 sounds which are phonetically quite distinct but which phonologically can be shown to be 2 versions of a single basic unity. The [l] sounds in the words ‘leap’ and ‘peal’ are pronounced very differently in many accents of English. So from the auditory point of view these are quite different sounds for ‘l ’. From the articulatory point of view they are also different. In the production of clear ‘l’ the middle part of the tongue is raised to the hard palates. Whereas in the production of dark ‘l’ the back of the tongue is raised to the soft palate.

If we know consider these sounds from the phonological view point, we reach a different conclusion. The two sounds are seen as fundamentally the same as they have a single job to do. Despite their differences in pronunciation they do not distinguish meanings in English (a phoneme as a functional unit [the function of a phoneme is to differentiate meanings]). If we substitute a clear ‘l’ for a dark ‘l’ in any English words, we don’t get a different meaning. We get the same word with a slightly odd pronunciation. The large phonetic difference is not made by a corresponding phonological one.

This example also illustrates the statement that phonology is concerned with a study of the sound system of a particular language. In Russian for example a similar phonetic difference to that between clear ‘l’ and dark ‘l’ carries with it a phonological difference. In Russian there are pairs of words different in meaning where the main phonetic difference is in the [l] sound used (люк-лук). The first beginning with the clear ‘l’ the second with the dark one.

A full statement of all such variations of sound in a language so as to determine which variations cause differences in meaning and which do not is a very complex matter. There are theoretical problems here. We can see smth obvious if we look briefly at the way in which alternative views of the phoneme have been formulated over the years.

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