THE FUNCTIONAL ASPECT OF SPEECH SOUNDS

Phonemes, allophones, phones: difference and relationships

• An ideal combination of articulatory features
in their contrastive linguistic sense is called
the phoneme /ðə ˈfəʊni:m/. The phonemes
can differentiate lexical meaning or
grammatical forms of words when
pronounced one instead the other. For
example, /ˈspɔ:t/ sport - /ˈspɒt/ spot.
• Allophones /ˈæləfəʊnz/ are the possible
variants of the same phoneme. They are not
used to differentiate meaning and depend on
the phonetic context.
• There are two types of allophones: principal
/ˈprɪnsəpl/ and subsidiary /səbˈsɪdjərɪ/. The
allophones which are not modified by the
neighbouring sounds are called principal. The
allophones which are modified by the
neighbouring sounds are called subsidiary.
• For example, an English phoneme /d/ presents a
principal allophone when it is taken in isolation
or in words like dog or dark, where it retains its
typical characteristics of an occlusive,
forelingual, apical, alveolar, lenis consonant. In
the following words the phoneme /d/ is realized
through its subsidiary allophones: good thing
(dental); dream (post-alveolar); dwell
(labialized). Still all these allophones retain three
basic articulatory features of the phoneme /d/:
they are forelingual lenis plosives (stops).
• The actual realization of allophones in the speech
chain is exercised through phones /ˈfəʊnz/. These
units are not predicted by phonetic context but
modified by phonostylistic, dialectal and
individual variations. That's why no speech sounds
are absolutely alike.
• Speaking about phonemes and allophones from
the point of view of language teaching it should
be mentioned that anyone who studies a foreign
language makes mistakes in the articulation of
sounds. Pronunciation errors are classified into
phonological and phonetic.
• If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by an
allophone of a different phoneme the mistake is
called phonological, because it affects the
meaning of words. For example, the change of a
vowel phoneme of the word beat into a more
open one creates another word bit: /bi:t/ - /bɪt/.
• If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by
another allophone of the same phoneme the
mistake is called phonetic, because the meaning
of the word does not change. For instance, the
absence of aspiration in the word pit does not
create any meaningful variations: /phɪt/ or /pɪt/
• Language teachers should guide the students
in order not to admit phonological mistakes.
Phonetic mistakes are possible; nevertheless
language learners are advised not to make
them, because in this case the degree of
foreign accent may be an obstacle to listener's
perception.
• The phoneme theory has been worked out by
many scholars belonging to different linguistic
schools. Its founder was Ivan Olexandrovych
Baudouin de Courtenay (1845 – 1929)
• I. O. Baudouin de Courtenay was the first in
the history of linguistics to consider human
speech sounds from the viewpoint of their
function. His views were later developed and
perfected by his disciple Lev Volodymyrovych
Shcherba (1880 – 1944).
• L.V. Shcherba was the first to define the
phoneme as an abstract, material and functional
unit. In his “French Phonetics” L.V. Shcherba
stated that in actual speech we utter a much
greater variety of sounds than we are aware of,
and that in every language these sounds are
united in a comparatively small number of sound
types, which are capable of distinguishing the
meaning and the form of words; that is they
serve the purpose of social communication. L.V.
Shcherba’s theory was further developed by his
disciples: V.A. Vassilyev, O.I. Dikushina, etc.
• Prof. V.A. Vassilyev in his book “English Phonetics.
A Theoretical Course” gives the following
definition of the phoneme: The segmental
phoneme is the smallest (further indivisible into
smaller consecutive segments) 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 from another word of
the same language or one grammatical form of a
word from another grammatical form of the
same word.
• M.A. Sokolova, gives a more concise form of this 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
and grammar forms of words.
• Thus, the phoneme is a dialectical unity of three aspects:
• (1) material, real and objective;
• (2) abstract or generalized;
• (3) functional.
• The phoneme is material, real and objective because it
really exists in the material form of speech sounds, called
allophones. The principal allophone of each phoneme is
included in the classification of the phonemes of a language
and taught to language learners.
• The phoneme is an abstraction because we
make it abstract from concrete realizations for
classificatory purposes. It is also a
generalization of a great variety of sounds that
are uttered by a speaker of a given language.
The abstractional and generalized aspects of
the phoneme have given rise to the appearance
of transcription, a visual system of notation of
the sound structure of the language.
• The transcription was adopted by the International
Phonetic Association (IPA) in 1904. There are two
basic types of transcription: phonemic and
allophonic. The phonemic transcription is based on
the principle: one symbol per one phoneme, i.e.
each symbol denotes a phoneme as a whole, as an
abstraction or generalization. The allophonic
transcription is based on the principle: one symbol
per one allophone, i.e. there is a special sign for
each variant of each phoneme. The phonemic
transcription is used in language teaching. The
allophonic transcription is used in scientific research.
• The phoneme is a functional unit. It performs three
functions: 1) constitutive (it constitutes words); 2)
recognitive (it helps to recognize words); 3)
distinctive (it makes one word or its grammatical
form distinct from the other). The principle function
of the phoneme is the distinctive one. It is
subdivided into (a) the morpheme distinctive
function, for example: said – says; dreamer –
dreamy; (b) the word distinctive function, for
example: pen – pan; night – light; (c) the sentence
distinctive function, for example: He was heard
badly. – He was hurt badly. I like walking here. – I
like working here.
• There are two main methods of phonological
investigation: the distributional method and the
semantic method.
• According to the distributional method phonemes are
discovered by classification of all the sounds
pronounced by native speakers according to the
following laws of phonemic and allophonic distribution:
• allophones of different phonemes occur in the same
phonetic context and their distribution is contrastive;
• allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the
same phonetic context, their distribution is
complementary and the choice depends on phonetic
environment.
• In the opposition let — pet — bet all initial
sounds are different phonemes, because they
occur in the same initial position before a
vowel. At the same time /th/ and /t°/ in take
and let present allophones of the same
phoneme: /th/ never occurs in the final word
position, while /t°/ never occurs initially
before stressed vowels.
• The semantic method consists in the systemic
substitution of one sound for another in the same
phonetic context in order to find cases in which such
a replacement leads to the change of meaning.
• For example, pin can be successively substituted for
bin, sin, din, tin, win, and each minimal opposition will
present different meanings. But the substitution of
/ph/ for /p/ in pin doesn't cause any change in
meaning, though it's wrong from the point of view of
English pronunciation norm. So it's possible to
conclude that /p/, /b/, /s/, /d/, /t/, /w/ are different
phonemes whereas /ph/ and /p/ are allophones of the
same phoneme.
• Any phoneme of a language is opposed to
another phoneme at least in one minimal
oppositional pair thus performing the distinctive
function.
• According to the number of distinctive features
phonological oppositions can be:
• A single phonological opposition marks a single
difference in the articulation of two speech
sounds. For example, the opposed phonemes in
the minimal pair 'pen — ben' possess some
common features (occlusive, labial) and one
differentiating feature (fortis vs. lenis).
• A double phonological opposition marks two
differences in the articulation of two speech
sounds. For example, the opposed phonemes in
the minimal pair 'pen — den' possess one common
feature (occlusive) and two differentiating feature
(labial vs. lingual, voiceless-fortis vs. voiced-lenis).
• A triple phonological opposition marks three
differences in the articulation of two speech
sounds. For example, there are three
differentiating features in the minimal pair 'pen —
then' (occlusive vs. constrictive, labial vs. dental,
voiceless-fortis vs. voiced-lenis).
• Points for self-control and class discussion:
– What is the phoneme? Give all possible definitions.
– What is the difference between phonemes and allophones?
– Is it important to differentiate between the principal and subsidiary
allophones of the phoneme? Why?
– What units represent the realization of allophones in actual speech?
Explain the connection between phonemes and phones.
– Comment on the difference between phonological and phonetic
mistakes. State whether it is useful in teaching practice.
– Where was the phoneme theory originated? Who was its founder?
– Who was the first to define the phoneme as an abstract, material and
functional unit? Prove that the phoneme is abstract, material and
functional.
– What methods of phonemic analysis do you know?
– Give a brief overview of the distributional method.
– Explain the essence of the semantic method.
– Speak about the theory of phonological oppositions.