Теоретическая фонетика английского языка (Теоретическая фонетика английского языка М.А. Соколова, И.С.Тихонова, Р.М.Тихонова, Е.Л.Фрейдина. - Дубна; Феникс+, 2010. - 192 с.), страница 8

Distributional method of phonological analysisThere are two most widely used methods of finding out what sounds arecontrastive. They are the formally distributional method and the semanti­cally distributional method.The formally distributional method consists in grouping all the soundspronounced by native speakers into phonemes according to the two laws ofphonemic and allophonic distribution. The laws were discovered long agoand are as follows:1. Allophones of different phonemes occur in the same phonetic con­text.2.

Allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same phoneticcontext.The sounds of a laIlb'1lage combine according to a certain pattern charac­teristic of this language. Phonemic opposability depends on the way the pho­nemes are distributed in their occurrence. That means that in any languagecertain sounds do not occur in certain positions, like [h] never occurs wordfinally while [D] never occurs word initially.

Such characteristics permit iden­30L The Functional Aspect of Speech Soundstification of phonemes on the grounds of their distribution. Ifa sound occursin a certain phonetic context and another one occurs in a different phoneticcontext no two words of a language can be distinguished solely by means ofthe opposition between those two. The two sets ofphonetic contexts are com­plementing each other and the two sounds are classed as allophones of thesame phoneme. They are said to be in complementary distribution. Considerthe following: ifwe fully palatalize [I] in the word "let" it may sound peculiarto native speakers but the word is still recognized as "let" but not "bet" or"pet".

The allophones lack distinctive power because they never occur in thesame phonetic context and the difference in their articulation depends on dif­ferent phonetic environment. To be able to distinguish the meaning the samesounds must be capable ofoccuqing in exactly the same environment like [p]and [b] in "pit" and "bit". Thus two conclusions follow:I. If more or less diflerent sounds occur in the same phonetic contextthey should be allophones of different phonemes. In this case their distribu­tion is contrastive.2.

If more or less similar sounds occur in different positions and neveroccur in the same phonetic context they are allophones ofone and the samephoneme. In this case their distribution is complementary.There are cases when allophones are in complementary distributionare not referred to the same phoneme. This is the case with the Englishme­and [lJ]: [h) occurs only initially or before adistribution is mod­dially or finally after a voweL In this casesimilarity/dissimilarity. Articu­ified by addition ofthe criterionlatory features are taken into account.So far we have considered cases when the distribution of sounds wasor complementary. There is a third possibility, namely,sounds occur in the language but the speakers are inconsistent inthe way they use them, like in the case ofthe Russian KGflOlUU - ZGflOlUU.

Insuch cases we must take them as free variants ofa single phoneme. The rea­son for the variation in the realization of the same phoneme could be ac­counted for by dialect or other social factors ..1.4.3. Semantically distributional method of phonological analysisThere is another method of phonological analysis widely used in Rus­sian linguistics.

It is called the semantically distributional method or seman­tic method. It is applied for phonological analysis of both unknown lan­guages and languages already described. The method is based on a phonemic1.4. Methods of Phonological Analysis31rule that phonemes can distinguish words and morphemes when opposed toone another. The semantic method of identifying the phonemes of a lan­guage attaches great significance to meaning.

It consists in systemic substi­tution of the sound for another in order to ascertain in which cases wherethe phonetic context remains the same such substitution leads to a changeof meaning. It is with the help ofthe informant that the change of meaningis stated. This procedure is called the commutation test. It consists in find­ing minimal pairs of words and their grammatical forms. By a minimal pairwe mean a pair ofwords or morphemes which are differentiated by only onephoneme in the same phonetic context.Let's consider the following example: suppose the scholar arrives at thesequence [pin]; he substitutes the sound [p] for the sound [b].

The substitu­tion leads to the change of meaning. This proves that [p] and rbl can be re­garded as allophones of different phonemes.Minimal pairs are useful for establishing the phonemesIf we continue to substitute [p] for [8], [d], [w] we get minimal pairs ofwords with different meaning sin, din, win. So [8], [d], [w] are allophones ofdifferent phonemes. But suppose we substitute [ph] for [p], the pronuncia­word would be wrong from the point ofview of English pronun­ciation norm, but the word would be still recognized as pin but not anythingelse. So we may conclude that the unaspirated [p] is an allophone of thesameThe phonemes ofa language form a system ofoppositions in which anyphoneme is usually opposed to other phonemes of the language in at leastone position, in at least one minimal pair.

So to establish the phonemicstructure of a language it is necessary to establish the whole system of op­positions. AU the sounds should be opposed in word-initial, word-medialand word-final positions. There are three kinds of oppositions. If membersofthe opposition differ in one feature the opposition is said to be single, likein pen - ben. Common features: occlusive, labiaL Differentiating feature:fortis -lenis. Iftwo distinctive features are marked the opposition is said tobe double, like in pen den.

Common feature: occlusive. Differentiatingfeatures: labial - lingual, fortis voiceless - lenis voiced. If three distinctivefeatures are marked the opposition is said to be triple (multiple), like inpen - then. Ditlerentiating features: occlusive constrictive, labial - den­tal, fortis voiceless lenis voiced.The features ofa phoneme that are capable of differentiating the mean­ing are termed as relevant or distinctive. The ones that do not take part indifferentiating the meaning are termed as irrelevant or non-distinctive. The32Chapter 1.

The Functional A~pect of Speech Soundslatter can be oftwo kinds: a) incidental or redundant features like aspirationofvoiceless plosives, presence ofvoice in voiced consonants, length ofvow­els; b) indispensable or concomitant features like tenseness of English longmonophthongs, the checked character of stressed short vowels, lip round­ing of back vowels.So the phonological analysis of the sounds of a language is based onsuch notions as contrastive distribution, minimal pairs, free variation. Tothis we must add one more concept, native speaker's knowledge.

All therules referred to above should account for the intuition of the native speakerand that is the real reason why we adopt them. It is the native speaker's feel­ing that makes us treat the allophones of [lJ] and [h] as different phonemes.Summing up we might say that the phonemic system of a language ispatterned. It is the aim ofphonological analysis to systematize the sounds ofthe language, i. e.

to group them into functionally similar classes.1.4.4. Methods of establishing the phonemic status of speech soundsin weak positions. MorphonologyContinuing the overview of the approaches to establishing the phone­mic status of speech sounds we should consider the cases when the soundsare in the weak position, or the position of neutralization.

In this positionsome of the distinctive features are neutralized. For vowels it is the positionin the unstressed syllables. Consonants are in their strong position beforevowels and in the intervocalic position, they are in the weak position whenthey are word final or precede other consonants.This problem is tackled by morphonology or morphophonemics, whichstudies the relationship between phonemes and morphemes. Morphonolo­gy is concerned with the way in which sounds can alternate as different re­alization of one and the same morpheme. A morpheme is a minimal unit ofmeaning.

Consider the words "windy", "dusty", "sunny". Evidently theyhave two morphemes. The meaning of "wind", "dust", "sun" is obvious.But what function does the morpheme "-y" perform? It appears that thefunction of"-y" is to convert a noun into an adjective. This morpheme hasa grammatical meaning. Now then what is meant by the identification ofalternated sounds?The following pairs of words exemplifY a sound alternation in one andthe same morpheme of two different parts of speech.malice [,mcehs] - malicious [ma'hjas]active [,cektIv] - activity [ak'tIVltI]104.

Methods of Phonological Analysis33abstract ['cebstrakt] - abstract [ab'strcekt] conduct ['knndakt] - conduct [kan'dAkt] contrast ['kontra:st] - contrast [kan'tra:st] There may be different solutions to the problem of phoneme identifica­tion in weak positions of alternated sounds. The problem is by far moresignificant for the Russian language because of the widely spread voiced!voiceless assimilation and vowel reduction in the language:a) MOP03 [MAp6c] MopmbI [MAp63bI] 6) Koca [KAca] KOChl [K6cbI] Scholars of different trends are not unanimous in treating the problem.The so-called morphological school represented by P.

S. Kuznetsov, A. A. Re­formatsky, R. 1. Avanesov, v: P. Sidorov, M. v: Panov supported the theory ofneutralization of phonemes, which is said to occur when two or more close­ly related sounds which are in contrast with each other in most positionslike ",lJ,OM" - "TOM", are found to be non-contrastive in certain other posi­tions, like in "cy,lJ," [CYT] - CY,lJ,HTb [CY,lJ,'HT']. In such cases the oppositionbetween the two sounds is said to be neutralized. The loss of one or moredistinctive features of a phoneme in the weak position is called phonemicneutralization.Moscow philologists claim that the interchange ofsounds manifests closeconnection between phonetics as the science of the sound system and mor­phology of the language which studies grammatical meanings.