Commentary

The article was written in the “Phonetics” in 1991 by J.D. O’Connor. The author point out that
phonetics study may be impartially applied to every language to describe or classify some features
but he also highlight that phonetician doesn’t work only like describer or classifier, he also
interested in how the sounds function in the different languages and their meaningful distinction of
the language. The idea is supported by the example of difference in sound between d and th, so in
English it can be used to differentiate one word to another, but in Spanish it can not be used for this.

Commentary 2
The article was written in the “Phonetics” in 1991 by J.D. O’Connor. The author explaining the idea
of distinctive features, highlighting that sometimes we need mention only one feature to distinguish
and in some cases it no longer enough. The idea is supported by the examples of classifying [s] and
[d] or [s],[d] and [t]. What is more, the author point out that we do not need to use a new feature
every time when we have to separate one sound from another.

Commentary 3.
The article was written in the “English Phonetics and Phonology: An Introduction” in 1999 by
Philip Carr. It was designed to establish what distribution is called complementary and it was done
with the examples of data about voiceless unaspirated and voiceless aspirated stops in English and
Korean. Thus, in the English data, the distribution of aspirated and unaspirated stops is mutually
exclusive and it is called complementary.

Commentary 4.
The article was written in “English Phonetics and Phonology” in 1987 by P.Roach. The author
highlights that it is a great deal of difficulty to select the correct syllable or syllables to stress in an
English word. The explanation is based upon that English is not one of those languages where word
stress can be decided simply in relation of syllables of the word, as can be done in French or Polish.
In other words, English stress placement is a highly complex matter and it is so difficult to predict,
therefore, it is the best to treat stress placement as a property of individual word. By the way, the
author also highlights that English speakers can pronounce unfamiliar words with the correct stress.