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 6

Another example. In the Russian word nocaaum the stressed vowel[a] is more front than it is in the word nocaaKa. It is even more front in22Chapter 1. The Functional Aspect of Speech Soundsthe word CROem. But Russian-speaking people do not observe this differ­ence because the three vowel sounds belong to the same phoneme andthus the changes in their quality do not distinguish the meaning.

So wehave good grounds to state that the phoneme is an abstract linguisticunit, it is an abstraction from actual speech sounds, i. e. allophonicmodifications.As it has been said before, native speakers do not observe the differ­ence between the allophones of the same phoneme. At the same time theyrealize, quite subconsciously of course, that allophones of each phonemepossess a bundle ofdistinctive features, that make this phoneme function­ally different from all other phonemes of the language concerned. Thisfunctionally relevant bundle of articulatory features is called the invariantof the phoneme. Neither of the articulatory features that form the invari­ant ofthe phoneme can be changed without affecting the meaning. All theallophones of the phoneme [d], for instance, are occlusive, fore lingual,If occlusive articulation is changed for constrictive one [d] will bereplaced by [z], cf. breed - breeze, deal- zeal; [d] will be replaced by [g]if the forelingual articulation is replaced by the backlingual one, cf.

dear­gear, day - gay. The lenis articulation of [d] cannot be substituted by thefortis one because it will also bring about changes in meaning, cf. dry ­try, ladder - latter, bid - bit. That is why it is possible to state that occlu­sive, forelingual and lenis characteristics of the phoneme [d] are general­ized in the mind of the speaker into what is called the invariant of thisphoneme.On the one hand, the phoneme is real, because it is realized in speechin the material form of speech sounds, its allophones. On the other hand,it is an abstract language unit.

That is why we can look upon the phonemeas a dialectical unity of the material and abstract aspects. Thus we maystate that it is the material form of speech sounds, its allophones. Speechsounds are necessarily allophones of one of the phonemes of the languageconcerned. All the allophones of the same phoneme have some articula­tory features in common, i. e. all of them possess the same invariant. Si­multaneously each allophone possesses quite particular phonetic featureswhich may not be traced in the articulation of other allophones of thesame phoneme. That is why while teaching pronunciation we cannot askour students to pronounce this or that phoneme. We can only teach themto pronounce one of its allophones.The articulatory features which form the invariant of the phoneme arecalled distinctive or relevant.

To extract the relevant feature of the pho­1.1. The Phoneme23neme we have to oppose it to some other phoneme in the same phoneticcontext. If the opposed sounds differ in one articulatory feature and thisdifference brings about changes in the meaning of the words the contrast­ing features are called relevant. For example, the words port and court dif­fer in one consonant only: the word port has the initial consonant [p], andthe word court begins with [k]. Both sounds are occlusive and fortis, theonly difference being that [p] is labial and [k] is backlingual.

Therefore itis possible to say that labial and backlingual articulations are relevant inthe system of English consonants.The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaningare called non-distinctive, irrelevant or redundant; for instance, it is im­possible in English to oppose an aspirated [p] to a non-aspirated one inthe same phonetic context to distinguish meanings. That is why aspirationis a non -distinctive feature of English consonants.1.1.3. Phonological and phonetic mistakes in pronunciationAs it has been mentioned above any change in the invariant ofthe pho­neme affects the meaning. Naturally, anyone who studies a foreign languagemakes mistakes in the articulation ofparticular sounds.

L. V. Shcherba clas­sifies the pronunciation errors as phonological and phonetic.If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a dif­ferent phoneme the mistake is called phonological, because the meaningof the word is inevitably affected. It happens when one or more relevantfeatures of the phoneme are not realized:When the vowel [i:] in the word beat becomes slightly more open, moreadvanced or is no longer diphthongized the word beat may be perceived asquite a different word bit. It is perfectly clear that this type of mistakes isnot admitted in teaching pronunciation to any type of language learner.If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by another allophone ofthe phoneme the mistake is called phonetic. It happens when the invari­ant ofthe phoneme is not modified and consequently the meaning of theword is not affected, e.

g. :When the vowel [i:] is fully long in such a word as sheep, for instance,the quality of it remaining the same, the meaning of the word does notchange. Nevertheless language learners are not to let phonetic mistakesinto their pronunciation. If they do make them the degree of their foreignaccent will certainly be an obstacle to the listener's perception and under­standing.24Chapter I.

The Functional Aspect of Speech Sounds1.2. TranscriptionIt is interesting at this stage to consider the system ofphonetic notationswhich is generally termed "transcription". Transcription is a set of symbolsrepresenting speech sounds. The symbolization of sounds naturally differsaccording to whether the aim is to indicate the phoneme, i. e. a functionalunit as a whole, or to reflect the modifications of its allophones as well.The International Phonetic Association (IPA) has given an acceptedinventory of symbols, used in different types of transcription.The first type ofnotation, the broad or phonemic transcription, providesspecial symbols for all the phonemes of a language. The second type, thenarrow or allophonic transcription, suggests special symbols for speechsounds, representing particular allophonic features.

The broad transcrip­tion is mainly used for practical purposes (in EFL teaching and learning, forexample), the narrow type serves the purposes of research work.The striking difference among present -day broad transcriptions of Brit­ish English is mainly due to the varying significance which is attached tovowel quality and quantity. Now we shall discuss two kinds of broad tran­scription which are used for practical purposes in our country.

The first typewas introduced by D. Jones. He realized the difference in quality as well asin quantity between the vowel sounds in the words sit and seat, pot and port,pull and pool, the neutral vowel and the vowel in the word earn. However, heaimed at reducing the number of symbols to a minimum and strongly in­sisted that certain conventions should be stated once for all.

One of theseconventions is, for instance, that the above-mentioned long and short vow­els differ in quality as well as in quantity. D. Jones supposed that this con­vention would relieve us from the necessity of introducing special symbolsto differentiate the quality of these vowels. That is why he used the samesymbols for them. According to D. Jones' notation English vowels are de­noted like this: [I] - [i:], [e] - [ee], [A] - [a:], [J] - [J:], [u] - [u:], [a] - [a:].This way of notation disguises the qualitative difference between the vowels[I] and [i:], [J] and [J:], [u] and [u:], [a] and [a:] though nowadays most pho­neticians agree that vowel length is not a distinctive feature ofthe vowel, butis rather dependent upon the phonetic context, i.

e. it is definitely redun­dant. For example, in such word pairs as hit - heat, cock - cork, pull- poolthe opposed vowels are approximately of the same length, the only differ­ence between them lies in their quality which is therefore relevant.More than that. Phonetic transcription is a good basis for teaching thepronunciation ofa foreign language, being a powerful visual aid. To achieve1.3.

Main Trends in the Phoneme Theory25good results it is necessary that the learners of English should associate eachrelevant difference between the phonemes with special symbols, i. e. eachphoneme should have a special symbol. If not, the difference between thepairs of sounds above may be wrongly associated with vowel length which isnon-distinctive (redundant) in modern English.The other type ofbroad transcription, first used by V.