Theory of Phonetics

Lecture 2. Phonology. Functional aspect of speech sound.

Plan:
1. Phonetics and Phonology. 2. The Phoneme as an oppositional unit of sound. 3. The difference between phonemes and allophones. 4. Classification of allophones. 5. Phonemic and Phonetic Transcription. 6. The phonemic chart. 7. Different opinions on the nature of the phoneme and its definition.

1. Phonetics and Phonology.

Phonetics

is the study of the way humans make, transmit, and receive speech sounds may be divided into three main branches ( articulatory, acoustic, auditory ) studies all possible sounds that the human vocal apparatus can make

Phonology

is the study of the sound systems of languages

studies only those contrasts in sounds which make differences of meaning within language

Phonetics & Phonology.

Phonetics studies sounds as articulatory and acoustic units.

The unit of Phonetics is a speech sound.

Phonology investigates sounds as units, which serve communicative purposes. The unit of Phonology is a phoneme.

2. The Phoneme as an oppositional unit of sound.

In search of the essence of the phoneme

1870- Russian linguist I.A. Baudouin de Courteney expressed the idea that the physical nature of sounds does not coincide with their meaning in the functioning of the language 1874- first mentioning of the term to denote a sound by French linguists 1911- L.V. Scherba defines the phoneme as the minimal sound unit capable of differentiating meanings

The Phoneme is an oppositional unit of sound.

Phonemes can be discovered by the method of minimal pairs.

The method of minimal pairs consists in finding pairs of words which differ in one phoneme.
e.g. fan van can ban

come gum know so

Minimal & Subminimal pairs

hat - hut thin tin three - tree

treasure pressure

A minimal set : a chain of words which differ in one phoneme.

fan van can ran tan ban bun burn born Ben bad bat back badge bang

The commutation test

The phonemes of a language form a system of oppositions, in which any one phoneme is opposed to any other phoneme in at least one position in at least one lexical or grammatical minimal or sub-minimal pair. If the substitution of one sound for another results in the change of meaning, the commuted /the substituted/ sounds are different phonemes.

Transformations
How to turn : a cup into a jar? a hat into a box? a wood into a park?

Possible transformations

cup cap car jar

hat fat fax fox box wood word work- pork - park

The Phoneme is an oppositional unit of sound.

Abstract nature of phonemes

Phonemes are of different nature than the morphemes, since they have no meaning of their own. They are, rather, the basic elements out of which the morphemes are made up.

Levels of phonetic study

The content level (the level of meanings)

morphemes are the basic units of content

The expression level (the level of sounds)

phonemes are the basic units of expression

Each phoneme, as a basic unit on the expression level of language, is opposed to all other similar units in the language.

3. The difference between phonemes and allophones.

I.A. Baudouin de Courteney L.V. Shcherba

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 sounds; that is they serve the purpose of social intercommunication. It is these sound types that should be included into the classification of phonemes and studied as differentiatory units of the language.

 , , , , , .. . , . . , , () .

..

The actually pronounced speech sounds are variants, or allophones of phonemes.

Allophones have phonetic similarity: their acoustic and articulatory features have much in common, but at the same time they differ in some degree and are incapable of differentiating words.

/t/ take twice button cattle tube Betty eighth

in

/t/ in

take is followed by aspiration

in stone this aspiration is no longer heard because of the preceding /s/

in twice /t/ is pronounced with rounded lips because a fully rounded sound /w/ follows

in button /t/ is released partially through the nose together with the immediately following /n/ sound

in cattle /t/ is released laterally, together with /l/

With some speakers /t/ in cattle and button may be pronounced with a glottal stop

in tube it is weakly palatalized because of the following /j/ sound;

in Betty it may be partially voiced because it is situated between two vowels.

(This is especially true of American English);

in eighth it is dental, because the following sound / q / is dental itself.

How foreign would you like your students to sound?

Are phonemic variants important for language teaching? Are phonemic differences important for actual communication? At what level of language teaching will you introduce them?

I heard a bus. I heard a buzz.

4. Classification of allophones.

allophones

principal/typical

subsidiary

positional

combinator y

Compare: light, let - hill, ill, mill

5. Phonemic and Phonetic Transcription.

Which transcription?

Phonetic
Square brackets - [ ] is called allophonic or narrow transcription.

Phonemic
Slant brackets - / / is known as broad transcription

I.P.A. (International Phonetic Alphabet) [~] = nasality [] = devoicing, breath

[ '] , [h ] = aspiration
[-] = lack of aspiration [>] = unreleased allophone

[ ] = dental articulation [j ] = palatalized articulation

[w ] = labialization, lip rounding [# ] = indicator of the utterance boundary

Transcribe the sentence:

I taught the children to swim.

6. The Phonemic Chart.

i: e x p f m

I q A b v n

V E: R t T N

u: O: P d D h

Iq Vq eq C s l

eI OI qV aI aV G k g z r S Z w j

7. Different opinions on the nature of the phoneme and its definition.

The nature of the phoneme

Mentalist view.
Physical view.

/I.A. Baudouin de Courteney/

/L. Bloomfield, D. Jones/

Functional view. /R. Jacobson, N.S. Trubetskoy/ Dialectical view. /L.V. Scherba, V.A. Vassiliev/

The phoneme is a dialectical unity of three aspects:

(1) (2) (3)

material, real & objective; abstractional & generalized; functional.

What exactly is meant by that?

the phoneme is material, real & objective because it really exists in the material form of speech sounds, allophones.

It is an objective reality, existing independently from our will, or intention.

the phoneme is an abstraction, because we make it abstract from concrete realizations for classificatory purposes.

the phoneme functions to make one word or its grammatical form distinct from the other, it constitutes words and helps to recognize them.

Plan:
1. Phonetics and Phonology. 2. The Phoneme as an oppositional unit of sound. 3. The difference between phonemes and allophones. 4. Classification of allophones. 5. Phonemic and Phonetic Transcription. 6. The phonemic chart. 7. Different opinions on the nature of the phoneme and its definition.