Lecture 5.

THE FUNCTIONAL ASPECT OF SPEECH SOUNDS

Terms:

phoneme [ˈfəʊniːm] - фонема lateral plosion [ˈlætərəl ˈpləʊʒən] - боковой

allophone [ˈæləˌfəʊn] - аллофон (латеральный взрыв)
phone [fəʊn] - фон nasal plosion [ˈneɪzəl ˈpləʊʒən] –
aspiration [ˌæspəˈreɪʃn] – аспирация, назальный взрыв
придыхание IPA [aɪ-piː-eɪ] - Международная
dialectal [ˌdaɪəˈlɛktl] - диалектный фонетическая ассоциация (и алфавит)
discriminatory[dɪsˈkrɪmɪnətəri] - notation [nəʊˈteɪʃən] – система
различительный обозначений
articulatory feature [ɑːˈtɪkjʊlətəri ˈfiːʧə] – phonological [ˌfəʊnəˈlɒʤɪkəl] -
арктикуляционный признак фонологический
relevant [ˈrɛlɪvcnt] – релевантный triple [ˈtrɪpl] - тройной
(различительный) combinatory [ˌkɒmbɪ'neɪtǝrɪ] -
комбинаторный

Оглавление
5.1 Phonology..............................................................................................................................................1
5.2 The phoneme........................................................................................................................................2
5.3 Allophones and phones....................................................................................................................2
5.4. Methods of phonological analysis........................................................................................................3
5.5 Relevant and irrelevant features...........................................................................................................4
5.6 Types of oppositions..............................................................................................................................4
5.7 Strong and weak positions.....................................................................................................................4
5.8 Phonological and phonetic mistakes in pronunciation..........................................................................5
5.9 Phonetic Transcription...........................................................................................................................5

5.1 Phonology

While phonetics is a study of articulatory, acoustic and auditory aspects of speech sounds,
phonology studies their functional aspect. The functional aspect is the discriminatory ability of sounds
(ability to discriminate between words). There is a special term for such discriminatory sounds - the
phonemes.
 5.2 The phoneme

Definitions and theories of the phoneme

The founder of the theory of the phoneme - L. A. Baudouin de Courtrney (Polish). His approach to
the phoneme was "mentalistic" or "psychological" - the phoneme is an ideal "mental image" or a
target at which the speaker aims.
The "functional" approach  — the phoneme is the smallest sound unit by which meanings may be
differentiated (N. Trubetskoy (1960), L. BloomfIeld (1933), R. Jakobson). (The "abstract” view - a
stronger form of the "functional" approach. Te phoneme is regarded as independent of the phonetic
properties (Ferdinand de Saussure , Louis Trolle Hjelmslev (1963) and the Copenhagen school).
The "physical" view – (D. Jones, B. Bloch and G. Trager) defined the phoneme as a “family” of
sounds. The members of the family show phonetic similarity. No member of the family can occur in
the same phonetic context as any other member.

Definition (based on L.V. Shcherba)

The phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech
sounds (allophones) opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning
of morphemes and words. In plain words, a phoneme is a “sound” in a contrastive sense.
V.A. Vassilyev developed this theory by pointing out three aspects of the phoneme:

 Material. The phoneme is material (real, objective), because it is realized in speech as speech
sounds (allophones).
 Abstract. The phoneme is abstract, because we don’t really use phonemes in speech as such –
instead, again, we use their realizations — allophones and phones. (The phoneme exists de juro, while
the sound – de facto).
 Functional. The phoneme is a functional unit. It means that the phoneme can help to distinguish
between words (sleeper - sleepy, bath – path) and even between sentences (he was heard badly - he
was hurt badly)

5.3 Allophones and phones

 Allophones are variants of a phoneme, which occur in different phonetic contexts in words
without distinguishing meanings. By phonetic context we mean the factors influencing
pronunciation of the sound in a word, including its position within the word and the surrounding
sounds. Unlike phonemes, two different allophones cannot be found in one position (for
example, the aspirated “p” as in “pot” can never be found in the end position, like in “top”).

Types of allophones. The variant of the phoneme which is most free from the influence of the
neighbouring phonemes is known as principal. The variants used in actual speech are called
subsidiary. Subsidiary allophones can be:
 - positional - used in certain positions traditionally (the English [l] is realized in actual speech as a
positional allophone: it is clear in the initial position, and dark in the terminal position (light, let
and hill, mill). Also compare different lengths of [i:] in me (longer) and bit (shorter).
- combinatory - appear in the process of speech and result from the influence of one phoneme
upon another (the sound [t] in phrases like let us and let them – alveolar in the first case it is and
dental in the second case (one word - let). Also compare lateral and nasal plosions (little,
midnight) or different lengths of [i:] in bid (longer), and bit (shorter).

 A phone is a speech sound, modified by phonostylistic, dialectal and individual factors (e.g.
speech defects).E.g. Rolled R (alveolar trill) in English is pronounced like Russian [р].

5.4. Methods of phonological analysis

The aim of phonological analysis is to discover phonemes and build the system of the phonemes of
a language. The most common method to do this is known as the distributional method. By
distribution we roughly mean the relationship between the sounds being compared. Thus, we can
identify two main types of distribution:
a. Contrastive distribution. This is when different sounds occur in the same phonetic context,
i.e. contrast with each other. To bring the sounds into the same phonetic context, so-called
minimal pairs are used. It’s a pair of words which are differentiated by only one sound. This
creates an opposition of sounds, e.g. big-wig (more different), big-pig (less different). (The
degree of difference varies according to the number of oppositions, discussed in 5.6). As the
sounds help distinguish between words, these sounds are phonemes. This is actually how
phonemes are discovered.

Let's consider another example: suppose the phonetician finds the sequence [pin]; he
substitutes the sound [p] for the sound [b]. The substitution leads to the change of meaning
(bin). This proves that [p] and [b] can be regarded as different phonemes. If we continue to
substitute [p] for [s], [d], [w] we get minimal pairs of words with different meaning sin, din,
win. So [s], [d], [w] are different phonemes.

b. Complementary distribution. This is when similar sounds (allophones) are found only in
different phonetic contexts, i.e. sounds complement (augment) each other. (Compare the
light blue and dark blue colours with light and dark [l]).

c. Free variants. Differ due to social (dialects) and other extralingustic factors, e.g.
«галоши» and «калоши» differ not due to their linguistic environment.
Sometimes distribution only looks like complementary (sounds can only occur in different
positions). This is the case with the English [ŋ] and [h]: [h] occurs only initially before a
vowel (hot), while [ŋ] medially or finally after a vowel (monkey, nothing). So, here the
factor of phonetic dissimilarity/similarity has to be added to the analysis (the sounds are too
dissimilar to be allophones).
 5.5 Relevant and irrelevant features

As was shown above, phonemes as a whole can distinguish words. But, if we look deeper, it is not
the phonemes, but their certain features which do that. The articulatory features that serve to
distinguish meaning are called relevant features. E.g. Let’s look at the port and court. They differ in
one consonant only: the word port has the initial consonant [p], and the word court begins with [k].
Both sounds are occlusive (смычные) and voiceless (глухие). The only difference is that [p] is labial
and [k] is backlingual. Labial and backlingual articulatory features are relevant in the system of
English consonants: they can occur in the same position and thus distinguish phonemes and – as a
result - meanings.

5.6 Types of oppositions

1) If members of the opposition differ in one relevant feature the opposition is single, like in pen -
ben. Common features: occlusive, labial, differentiating feature: voiceless -voiced.
2) If members of the opposition differ in two relevant features, the opposition is double, like in pen
- den. Common feature: occlusive, differentiating features: labial - lingual, voiceless - voiced.
3) If members of the opposition differ in three relevant features the opposition is triple (or
multiple, if there are other differences), like in pen - then. Differentiating features: occlusive -
constrictive, labial - dental, voiceless - voiced.

5.7 Strong and weak positions

So far, we have focused on speech sounds in strong positions. Now, needless to say, sounds have
weak positions as well.
- For vowels weak positions are those in the unstressed syllables.
- For consonants weak positions are those in the in the final position or before other consonants –like
in look, queen; the strong position is before vowels and the intervocal position – like in catch,
socket.
The loss of the phoneme’s relevant (distinctive) features in the weak position is called
neutralization. E.g., in the following examples the sounds alternate: the stressed vowels become the
schwa (neutral) sound and vice versa:
|
malice - ma|licious
|
active - ac|tivity
con|duct (v.) – |conduct (n.)

This happens because the morphological status (part of speech) of the word is changed. (Not to be
confuses with “|desert-de|ssert”, because these are different words). Sound alternations due to the
change of morphological structure are studied by morphonology. In English such significant sound
alterations are quite common for vowels, but not for consonants, though possible sometimes due to
historical reasons:
press – pressure
leaf – leaves
knife - knives
 This problem is more typical of the Russian language because of widely spread voiced/voiceless
(«мороз»-«морозы») alterations. There are 2 views on this problem. One is that the alternated sounds
represent one phoneme (Moscow school),i.e. the morpheme and the phoneme are closely connected.
Such and similar cases may make up a so-called «фонетический ряд» (R.I. Аванесов).
с Колей [c]
с Галей [з]
c Шурой [ш]
c Женей [ж]
и т.д.
The other view is that sounds [c] and [з] in «мороз»-«морозы» are two different phonemes (St.
Petersburg school), i.e. that the phoneme is independent of the morpheme.

5.8 Phonological and phonetic mistakes in pronunciation

L. V. Shcherba classifies the pronunciation errors into phonological and phonetic.

If a phoneme is replaced by a different phoneme the mistake is called phonological, because the
meaning of the word is affected. It happens when one or more relevant features of the phoneme are not
realized. When the vowel [i:] in the word beat becomes slightly more open, or more advanced we may
confuse it with the word bit. Or, if TH is pronounced as F in THOUGHT, we get FOUGHT.This type
of mistakes are the worst, because they can lead to misunderstanding in real conversation.
If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the phoneme the mistake is
called phonetic. E.g. when we pronounce [d] in middle without the lateral release or in midnight
without the nasal release. These mistakes do not lead to misunderstanding, but they contribute to a
strong accent, which is not good either.

5.9 Phonetic Transcription

Transcription is a set of symbols representing speech sounds.

The most widely used system of phonetic symbols is IPA Transcription (the International Phonetic
Association/Alphabet). The IPA chart embraces all languages, and phonemic transcription of particular
languages is often based on it.

 The broad (phonemic) transcription of the English language was first Introduced by Daniel
Jones (12 September 1881 – 4 December 1967). Though he realized that vowel sounds differ both in
quality and quantity (as you probably know), he tried to reduce the number of symbols to a minimum.
So, the difference between some symbols in his notation is only in the length mark (:). Here is D.
Jones’s vowel transcription system: [ɪ] - [i:], [e] - [æ], [ʌ] - [a:], [ɔ] - [ɔː], [ʊ] - [u:], [ə] - [əː]. The
modern phonetic transcription of these sounds is: [ɪ], [i:], [e], [æ], [ʌ], [ɑː], [ɒ], [ɔː], [ʊ], [u:], [ɜː], [ə].
There are other modern transcription systems, such as one found in the Current British English
pronunciation dictionary (CUBE; http://cubedictionary.org/ ) or in the Webster dictionary. E.g., the
CUBE dictionary presumes that vowels [ɪ] in /deɪ/ and [ʊ] in /ləʊ/ are actually sonorants [j] and [w]
(d ɛ́j, l ə́w).

 The narrow (allophonic) transcription is used mainly in research.

E.g. As, for the sound [t], it can have the following allophones: aspirated [th] (at the beginning of
words, as in “top”), [tn] [tl] before nasal and lateral releases in midnight and little respectively,
glottalized [t] (glottal stop): [nɒʔnaʊ] (not now), button ([ˈbʌʔn̩ ]), voiced alveolar tap [ˈbɛɾɚ] (better).
 SEMINAR
Questions

1) What is phonology?
2) How are phonemes discovered?
3) What is the difference between phonemes and allophones?
4) What types of allophones do you know?
5) State the difference between phonological and phonetic mistakes.
6) What features are called distinctive (relevant) and non-distinctive (irrelevant)? Give
examples.
7) What patterns of phoneme distribution do you know?
8) What types of oppositions can be distinguished?
9) What are the aspects of the phoneme?
10) What types of transcription are distinguished?

Define the following terms

- allophone,
- minimal pair,
- phoneme,
- phonology,
- principal allophone,
- subsidiary allophone,
- transcription

Practical tasks
1) Match the words below to obtain minimal pairs:
catch, pip, cheap, sap, he, jail, lap, pair, say, sink, rip, fail, lass, Sam, mink, cap, tear, she, lay,
heap, match

2) Match the following words to obtain minimal pairs. State the type of opposition:
lane, merry, knock, rice, berry, right, moat, dock, hair, fame, dare, same, vain, bee, thee,
boat.

3) If a student of English substitutes the English [d] by the Russian [д], does he make a
phonetic or phonological mistake?
4) Suppose your fellow-student says beer instead of bear. Is this mistake phonetic or
phonological?

5) Suppose your fellow-student pronounces the word sing as [sɪn]. Is this mistake phonetic or
phonological?
6) If the word port sounds as [pɒt], is the mistake phonetic or phonological?
7) What is the difference between the two consonants [b] in the word bob?
8) Is the vowel [ɪ] longer in lit or lid?
9) Is the diphthong longer in laid or in late?
10) Is the vowel shorter in nod or not?
11) How are [b, d, ɡ] pronounced in word final position?
12) State the allophonic differences of the phonemes: [t] – table, bottle, written, stone, football;
[b] – labur, bee, cab, stabbed, table, ribbon; [k] – come, baker, deck chair, taken, tickle, sky;
[d] – day, leader, mad, good dog, middle, admit
13) Give examples to show variations in length of the vowel [i:] in different positions.
14) Give examples to illustrate that [ɑ:] is not equally long in different phonetic contexts.
15) What do the consonants [p, t, k] have in common?
16) Sort out the oppositions under the following headings: (a) labial vs. forelingual, (b) labial vs.
mediolingual, (c) labial vs. backlingual:
17) pat – cat, leap – leak, wield – yield, seem – seen, man – map, coming – cunning.