Utterance stress in English, its phonetic nature . and function. The relationship between utterance stress and word stress in English

THE STRESS PATTERN OF ENGLISH WORDS. TENDENCIES

In almost all languages, there is a variation in the relative prominence of syllables. The prominence of syllables is referred to as stress. It is a function of pitch, duration/length/loudness, and quality. In different languages one of the factors is usually more significant than the others. Depending upon which factor is the principal one in giving prominence to a syllable, word stress in languages may be of different types. 1. If special prominence is achieved through the increased loudness (i.e. intensity of articulation), such word stress is termed DYNAMIC. 2. If special prominence in a stressed syllable is achieved mainly through the change of pitch, such type of word stress is MUSICAL, or TONIC. 3. QUANTITATIVE stress is when prominence is achieved through the changes in the quantity of vowels, i.e. their duration. 4. QUALITATIVE stress is when the stressed vowel is made prominent due to its clear and distinct character.

There are languages which do not have word stress, such as Evenk, or Kalmyk, but many languages combine various types of words stress. Russian displays qualitative, quantitative and dynamic features. Word stress in Ancient Greek used to be tonic, but is characterized as dynamic in Modern Greek. Scandinavian languages make use of both dynamic and tonic stresses in more or less equal degree. Oriental languages like Chinese, Japanese, Korean are tonic In English prominence is achieved due to increased duration, loudness and higher pitch, i.e. quantitative, tonic and dynamic stressing.

Some languages have fixed stress, associated with a certain syllable in a word. In Finnish, Czech, Latvian stress always falls on the first syllable, in Turkish – on the final syllable of the root form, in French – on the final syllable in the word. In English, Russian stress placement is free in that different words can have different stress pattern. .Any word with more than one syllable has a word stress. The stress pattern of a word reflects the distribution of prominence among its syllables. In words that have one stress, the latter is called ‘primary stress’. In longer words, it is possible to pick out a second, weaker stressed syllable that bears secondary stress notated as low mark. Two main tendencies determine the place and different degrees of word stress in English: the RECESSIVE tendency and the RHYTHMIC tendency. The oldest of the English word accentuation tendencies is the RECESSIVE tendency, characteristic of all Germanic languages. It originally consisted in placing the word stress on the initial syllable of nouns, adjectives, and verbs and on the root syllable of words which belonged to other parts of speech and had a prefix. The recessive accent in Modern English is of two types: UNRESTRICTED and RESTRICTED (by an unstressed prefix). UNRESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the first (root) syllable, as in words FATHER, MOTHER, HUSBAND. RESTRICTED recessive accent falls on the second (root) syllable of native English words with a prefix which has lost its meaning: AMONG, BECOME, FORGET, INDEED. Under the influence of the native English tendency to unrestricted recessive stress, all the disyllabic and trisyllabic words borrowed from French until the 15^th century underwent ‘accentual assimilation’: the original accent on the final syllable of loan words and gradually shifted to the beginning: COLOUR, MARRIAGE, REASON< etc. In Chaucer’s poems we find such free accentual variants as ‘REASON and REA’SON. Loan words with prefixes which have no particular meaning now also have restricted recessive stress: CON’DUCT, DE’PEND, SUR’PRISE.
The RHYTHMIC tendency can be accounted for the presence in English of a great number of monosyllabic words, some of which are stressed (notional) words, others are not (form words). Such phenomenon has created the English rhythm, consisting of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables This tendency has caused the appearance in borrowed polysyllabic words of a secondary stress on the syllable separated from the word-final principal stress by an unstressed syllable. The words began to be pronounced in isolation on the model of short phrases in which a stressed syllable alternated with an unstressed one. Thus the word ‘RADICAL originally had a stress on the final syllable – RADI’CAL- but later it received the recessive stress on the initial syllable, while the final stress was still retained. The result of it was the typically English alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one. For some time this and similar words had two stresses but gradually the word-final stress began to weaken and disappeared. Thus in tri-syllabic words there remained only one strong stress on the third syllable from the end of the word. The tendency to stress the third syllable from the end was extended to four-syllable words as well, and this stress is called RHYTHMICAL. Strictly speaking, the stress in such words as RADICAL, FAMILY, CINEMA, is rhythmical only in its origin, because in Modern English there is no alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one in these words. The stress here is called HYSTORICALLY RHYTHMICAL In Modern English there is also GENINELY RHYTHMICAL stress. This is the secondary stress on the second PRETONIC syllable in words like PRO,NUNCI’ATION, E,XAMI’NATION, RE,LIA’BILITY, etc. There is also a RETENTIVE tendency which consists in the retention of the stress of the parent word in the derivatives. More commonly it is kept in the parent word as a secondary accent, e.g., ‘PERSON – ‘PERSONAL – ,PERSO’NALITY.

The SEMANTIC factor can also condition the place and the degree of stress. The meaningful prefixes UN-, MIS-, EX-, UDNER-, etc, (UNKNOWN, EXWIFE, UNDERESTIMATE), or semantically more important part of a compound word get more prominence: BUTTONHOLE, TONGUETWISTER.

WORD STRESS RULES.

There are some fairly regular word stress patterns (although there will often be exceptions)
1. In two-syllable verbs: a/ if the second syllable of the verb contains a long vowel or a diphthong, or if it ends with more than one consonant, the second syllable is stressed.

Examples: A’PPLY, COM’PLETE, A’RRIVE, RE’SIST, OB’JECT
b/ if the final syllable contains a short vowel and one (or no) final consonant, the first syllable is stressed. Examples: ‘ENTER, ‘OPEN, ‘EQUAL, ‘BORROW, ‘PROFIT
Exceptions to this rule include AD’MIT and PER’MIT (verb).
2. There are some suffixes (or word endings) that usually carry stress.
Words with these endings usually carry stress on the last syllable:
-ain ENTER’TAIN /// -ee REFU’GEE /// -eer MOUNTAI’NEER /// -ese PORTU’GUESE
-ette CIGA’RETTE (NB American English would stress the first syllable)
3. The suiffixes –ion, -ious/-eous, -ity, -ify, -ive, -ible, -igible, -ish, -graphy, -meter, -logy, require stress to be on the preceding syllable:
-ion/-ian DE’CISION, E’DITION, MA’GICIAN, CA’NADIAN; -ious /-eous CON’TENTIOUS, COU’RAGEOUS; -ity ‘QUALITY, SIM’PLICITY, NATIO’NALITY; -ify ‘TERRIFY, ‘JUSTIFY, I’DENTIFY; -ive EX’TENSIVE -ible IN’CREDIBLE, ‘TERRIBLE, -igible NE’GLIGIBLE, IN’TELLIGIBLE; -ish PUBLISH, FINISH, FURNISH, - graphy PHO’TOGRAPHY, BI’OGRAPHY
-meter THER’MOMETER /// -logy BI’OLOGY, TECH’NOLOGY, IDE’OLOGY

4. Words of two syllables ending in -ate place the accent on -ate eg,: TRAN’SLATE, DIC’TATE, DE’BATE, whereas words of three or more syllables ending in -ate have the main accent on the third syllable from the end. E.g.: NE’GOTIATE, ‘INDICATE, ‘IRRITATE.

5. In compound words or words made up of two elements, there are again some general patterns.: If the first element of the word is a noun, then the stress normally goes on the first element: ‘TYPEWRITER, ‘FRUIT-CAKE, ‘SUITCASE, ‘SCREWDRIVER, ‘TEACUP, ‘SUNRISE. If the first part is an adjective, then the stress goes on the second part: ˌLOUD’SPEAKER, ˌBAD-‘TEMPERED,

UTTERANCE STRESS

Words grouped into an utterance are not equally important. Depending on the context or the communication situation some words appear to contribute more information than others. Those that are semantically more important are made prominent. The special prominence given to one or more words in an utterance is called utterance stress.

Stress is part of the phonetic structure of the word. We always know the place of stress in a word. When the word is made prominent in an utterance, stress becomes a feature of the utterance.

The means, with the help of which the special prominence is achieved and the effect of stress is produced, are variations of pitch, loudness, length and quality. Acoustically, utterance stress is determined by variations of frequency, intensity, duration and formant structure.

The role of each of these acoustic parameters in creating the effect of utterance stress has been studied experimentally by a number of phoneticians in this country and abroad. It appears that frequency is more efficient in determining stresses in an utterance than intensity. Duration also appears to play a greater role than intensity.

As a rule the effect of utterance stress is created not by a single acoustic parameter but by a certain interaction of different parameters.

The subsystem of utterance stress in English includes three basic functio nal types: nuclear stress, non-nuclear full stress and partial stress.

The main difference between these three types of stress is the difference in how the syllables that bear them are marked. The nuclear syllable is in most cases marked by a kinetic tone and is, therefore, perceived as the most prominent. Non-nuclear fully stressed syllables are more often marked by static tones. Both are pitch prominent, both initiate tones. Partially stressed syllables are not pitch prominent, they do not initiate tones and their pitch characteristics depend on the pitch pattern of the preceding fully stressed syllables.

Each of the above three types of stress has functionally significant degrees depending on the modal—stylistic factors of speech. Thus, stresses in emphatic speech are stronger than those in unemphatic speech.

The distribution of stresses in an utterance depends on several factors. G. Torsuyev points to the following factors: semantic, grammatical and rhythmical.

The crucial factor in determining the location, type and degree of stress in an utterance is the semantic factor, i.e. the meaning which the utterance is intended to convey. The semantic centre of the utterance is singled out by the nuclear stress (or primary accent). This type of stress is opposed to the non-nuclear stresses by its greatest semantic importance. In their turn non-nuclear full stresses signal greater semantic value of the words than partial stresses.

Notional words, due to their function in the language, are usually stressed in an utterance. Form words are likely to be unstressed. But in special conditions, when they are semantically important, form words may become stressed, e.g. "It is 'not at 'allinteresting". - "Itis interesting". On the other hand notional words, if the meaning requires, may become unstressed, e.g.

The grammatical structure of the utterance also determines its accentual structure. For instance, the inverted word order requires stress on the auxiliary verb.

The distribution of stresses in an utterance is also affected by the rhythmical laws of the English language. Due to the rhythmical organization of the utterance notional words may be unstressed, and form words, on the contrary, may be stressed.

The semantic, grammatical and rhythmical factors are closely connected with one another, the semantic factor being the main one.

Stresses in an utterance fulfill the same three functions as other components of prosody - constitutive, distinctive and identificatory. In their constitutive function stresses form the utterance by integrating words. They form the accentual structure of the utterance, which is the basis of its rhythm and part of its prosodic structure. While integrating words into utterances, stresses of different hierarchy segment the speech continuum into rhythmic (accentual) units, intonation groups and utterances, and delimit them one from another thus carrying out the segmentative and delimitative functions. The distinctive function of stresses manifests itself in differentiating utterances as to their meaning, which is conditioned by the position and type
of stress. E.g. Don't you 'find it /difficult" and Don't /you find it difficult?" The opposition of degrees of utterance stress carries out a modal—stylistic function.

In its identificatory function utterance stress provides a basis for the hearer's identification of the important parts of the utterance and for his understanding of the content.

25. Types of utterance stress. Factors conditioning the location of utterance stress.

UTTERANCE STRESS

Stress is part of the phonetic structure of the word. We always know the place of stress in a word. When the word is made prominent in an utterance, stress becomes a feature of the utterance.

As a rule the effect of utterance stress is created not by a single acoustic parameter but by a certain interaction of different parameters.

The subsystem of utterance stress in English includes three basic functio nal types: nuclear stress, non-nuclear full stress and partial stress.

The distribution of stresses in an utterance depends on several factors. G. Torsuyev points to the following factors: semantic, grammatical and rhythmical.

The grammatical structure of the utterance also determines its accentual structure. For instance, the inverted word order requires stress on the auxiliary verb.

The semantic, grammatical and rhythmical factors are closely connected with one another, the semantic factor being the main one.

In its identificatory function utterance stress provides a basis for the hearer's identification of the important parts of the utterance and for his understanding of the content.

26. Speech rhythm and utterance stress.

Rhythm

An essential feature of connected speech is that the peaks of prominence - the stressed syllables - are inseparably connected with non-prominent syllables. The latter are attached to the stressed syllables, they never exist by themselves. The simplest example of a close relationship between the stressed and unstressed syllables is a polysyllabic word-utterance which is a phonetic and semantic entity incapable of division, e.g.:

`Excellent. To`morrow. `Certainly.

Thus an utterance is split into groups of syllables unified by a stressed syllable, i.e. stress-groups, each of which is a semantic unit - generally a word, often more than a word.

An important feature of English pronunciation is that the prominent syllables in an utterance occur at approximately equal periods of time. It means more or less equal time for each of the stressed groups:I'd 'like to 'give you a 'piece of ad`vice. When the number of syllables in adjacent stress-groups is not equal, the speed of utterance will be the highest in the group having the largest number of syllables and, vice versa, the tempo is noticeably slower in a group having fewer syllables. Thus the perceptible isochrony of stress-groups is based on the speakers tending to minimize the differences in thelength of stressed groups in an utterance.

Thus it has been shown that stress in English performs an important function of 'organizing' an utterance, providing the basis for its r h у t h m i с structure which is the realization of rhythm as a prosodic feature of speech.

Rhythm is defined in different languages in largely the same terms. The notion of rhythm implies, first of all, a certain periodicity of phonological events. For an English utterance these events, as has been made clear, are the stressed syllables. Such a periodicity is a peculiarity of English. English speech is therefore often described as more 'rhythmic' than, for example, Russian.

It follows that the units of the rhythmic organization of an utterance are stress-groups, which may be as well called rhythmic groups.

The semantic, grammatical and rhythmical factors are closely connected with one another, the semantic factor being the main one.

The RHYTHMIC tendency can be accounted for the presence in English of a great number of monosyllabic words, some of which are stressed (notional) words, others are not (form words). Such phenomenon has created the English rhythm, consisting of alternating stressed and unstressed syllables This tendency has caused the appearance in borrowed polysyllabic words of a secondary stress on the syllable separated from the word-final principal stress by an unstressed syllable. The words began to be pronounced in isolation on the model of short phrases in which a stressed syllable alternated with an unstressed one. Thus the word ‘RADICAL originally had a stress on the final syllable – RADI’CAL- but later it received the recessive stress on the initial syllable, while the final stress was still retained. The result of it was the typically English alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one. For some time this and similar words had two stresses but gradually the word-final stress began to weaken and disappeared. Thus in tri-syllabic words there remained only one strong stress on the third syllable from the end of the word. The tendency to stress the third syllable from the end was extended to four-syllable words as well, and this stress is called RHYTHMICAL. Strictly speaking, the stress in such words as RADICAL, FAMILY, CINEMA, is rhythmical only in its origin, because in Modern English there is no alternation of a stressed syllable with an unstressed one in these words. The stress here is called HYSTORICALLY RHYTHMICAL In Modern English there is also GENINELY RHYTHMICAL stress. This is the secondary stress on the second PRETONIC syllable in words like PRO,NUNCI’ATION, E,XAMI’NATION, RE,LIA’BILITY, etc. There is also a RETENTIVE tendency which consists in the retention of the stress of the parent word in the derivatives. More commonly it is kept in the parent word as a secondary accent, e.g., ‘PERSON – ‘PERSONAL – ,PERSO’NALITY.

8. Problems of the phonemic inventory of English vowels

Identifying all the phonemes of a language is not always a simple thing to do. Time and again there emerge difficulties as to the phonemic status of certain sounds. Such difficulties arise when one deals with weakened vowels occurring in unstressed position. It primarily concerns the neutral sound in English which occurs only in unstressed position.

The problem is whether there is a neutral sound a phoneme in English. Scholars are not in agreement on this point. Though /э/ can be opposed only to weakened vowel phonemes, which are partially reduced due to their position in unstressed syllables, it can form phonological oppositions with a number of other phonemes and can distinguish words.

E.g., / э / vs. /i/ accept — except; armour — army

officers — offices;allusion – illusion

/э / vs. /оu/ temper — tempo, solar — solo

/э / vs. / з :/ forward — foreword

It is sometimes considered that /э/is an allophone of /^/, because /^/ is almost exclusively used in stressed syllables (as in "comfort" /'k^ mf э t/, "abundant" / э'b^ndэnt/), whereas /э/ occurs only in unstressed syllables.,

There are controversial views on whether / j / and /w/ in English are allophones of / i / and /u/ or they are separate phonemes. R.Jakobson and other American linguists treat them as allophones of /i / and /u/ on account of their weakness and unstable articulatory features. Whereas other scholars treat / j / and /w/ as phonemes, because as they say /j/ and /w/ can form phonological oppositions with each other and with other phonemes (e.g. "yell" — "well", "yet" — "met", "wheat" — "meat"). One ought to mention the fact that /j/ and /w/ in English occur in phonetic positions that are generally occupied by consonant phonemes; consequently, they cannot be considered to be allophones of vowel phonemes.

Speech tempo and pausation

TEMPO

The tempo of speech is the rate at which utterances and their smaller units are pronounced. On the acoustic level tempo is generally measured by the number of syllables per second.

Tempo of speech may be determined by different factors. It may vary depending on the size of audience, the acoustic qualities of the room, the individuality of the speaker and other extralinguistic factors. But most significant for the linguistic study is how variations in tempo correlate with changes in meaning.

It is common knowledge that by slowing down the tempo of speech we can make an utterance or part of it more prominent, thus underlining the semantic importance of it.

On the contrary, by increasing the speed of utterance we diminish prominence and, as a result the actual semantic importance of what we say.

Tempo can also be used to express the speaker's attitude or emotion. For example, fast tempo may express excitement, joy, anger, etc. Slow tempo shows relaxation or calmness, reserved and phlegmatic attitude on the part of the speaker.

Everybody's speech has some norm of tempo, deviations from which affect meaning. Phoneticians generally distinguish normal tempo and two departures from the norm: fast and slow.

D.Crystal gives a more detailed classification of variations of tempo. He distinguishes between simple and complex tempo systems. The simple tempo system is manifested both in monosyllables and polysyllabic stretches of utterance. The complex tempo system is realized in polysyllabic stretches.

In monosyllables the speeding up and slowing down of the duration of the syllable is perceived as clipped, drawled and held syllables which are generally used for emphasis. "Clipped syllables are articulated at a more rapid speed than normal, in a very tense way; drawled and held syllables are articulated less rapidly than normal, and very lax".

The distinction between drawled and held syllables is that in the former a sound is lengthened as in [ff ain] and in the latter a sound is articulated with the onset of articulation delayed, so that the auditory impression of length is produced through unexpected silence, for example, in stop consonants

as in "Perfectly" [pp3:fiktli] or "Quite, quite blue" [kkwait].

In polysyllabic stretches of utterance D.Crysta I distinguishes two degrees faster than the norm — allegro, allegrissimo, and two degrees slower than the norm — lento, lentissimo in the complex tempo system there are accelerando — a gradual increase in tempo, and rallentando — a gradual decrease. These contrasts of tempo correlate with changes in meaning. They may also serve as a style—forming and style—differentiating device.

Pauses

The speech continuum is divided into units of different length and hierarchy by means of pauses. It is the main function of a pause to segment connected speech into utterances and intonation groups to delimit one utterance or intonation group from another. Pauses are closely related with tempo: the number and length of pauses affect the general tempo of speech.

Phoneticians distinguish 3 main types of pauses: silent pauses, pauses of perception and voiced (or filled} pauses.

A silent pause is a stop in the phonation (a stop of the work of the vocal cords, which results in the cessation of sound).

Pauses of perception are not a stop in phonation, as there is no period of silence. The effect of a pause is produced by a sharp change of pitch direction, or by variations in duration, or both.

Pauses of perception are generally marked by a wavy line which is used at the junction of intonation groups.

Voiced pauses have usually the quality of the central vowel [ 3: (Э) ] with or without nasalization [ э (m) ]. They are used to signal hesitation or doubt and are therefore called hesitation pauses.

Silent pauses are subdivided into several types according to their length: short, long and extra—long. The short pause is mainly used to separate two intonation groups. The long pause which is approximately twice as long is generally used to delimit two utterances. The extra—long pause is used as a rule to separate two paragraphs. But the main factors that determine the occurrence of the type of pause are the semantic relations between the prosodic units. Short pauses indicate closer relations than long ones.

It should be noted that the duration of pauses is relative, not absolute. It may vary depending on the general tempo of speech.

Pauses are very important constituents of intonation. Besides their segmentative and delimitative functions they also perform a unifying function showing the relations between utterances or intonation groups.

8.-9 problems of the phonemic inventory

The distributional method is based on the phonological rule that different phonemes can freely occur in one and the same position, while allophones of one and the same phoneme occur in different positions and can’t be phonologically opposed to each other. This method is purely formal method of identifying the phonemes of a language.

The semantic method is based on the phonological rule that a phoneme can distinguish words when opposed to another phoneme or zero in an identical phonetic position.

. THE PHONOLOGICAL ANALYSIS. Problem 1. THE PHONEME INVENTORY

In analyzing speech phoneticians carry out a phonetic and a phonological analyses. Phonetic analysis is concerned with the articulatory and acoustic characteristics of particular sounds and their combinations. Phonological analysis is concerned with the role of those sounds in communication. The main problems in phonological analysis are as follows: 1. The establishment of the inventory of phonemes of a certain language. (The inventory of phonemes of a language is all phonemes of this language. Every language has it's own inventory of speech sounds that it uses to contrast meaning. English has one of the larger inventories among the world's languages. Cantonese has up to 52 vowels when vowel + tone combinations are considered. Many languages include consonants not found in English). 2. The establishment of phonologically relevant (distinctive features of a language). 3. The interrelationships among the phonemes of a language.

Problem 1. The establishment of the inventory of phonemes of a certain language. The great variety of allophones complicates the identification of phonemes in connected speech. There are two main methods of establishing phonemes in a language: SEMANTIC and FORMAL, or DISTRIBUTIONAL. The SEMANTIC method attaches great significance to meaning. It is based on the rule that a phoneme can distinguish words when opposed to another phoneme or ZERO in an individual phonetic position. The investigator studies the function of sounds by collecting MINIMAL PAIRS (lexical or grammatical pairs of words that differ in only one speech sound in the same position). If the substitution of one sound for another results in the change of meaning, the commuted sounds are different phonemes. E.g. if we replace /b/ by /f/ in the word PAIR, we get a new word FAIR. This pair of words is distinguished in meaning by a single sound change. So the phonemes /p/ and /f/ contrast in English. The opposition /p/versus/f/ is called PHONOLOGICAL OPPOSITION. In PAIR-AIR, /p/is opposed to /-/, this is called ZERO OPPOSITION. Examples of grammatical pairs; SLEEP- SLEEPY, /-/ v /i/. Allophones can not make up minimal pairs. For example, /pʰ/ in PIN and /p/ in spin are allophones of the phoneme /p/ and no minimal pair can be found to distinguish them. Languages like Cantonese, Mandarin, and Thai distinguish between them and they represent distinct phonemes /p/ and /pʰ/. In Korean /r/ in KOREA and /l/ in SEOUL are allophones of the phoneme /l/. The are perceived by native speakers of Korean as a single phoneme and have a single L letter. The difference is that /r/ is pronounced before vowels. In Spanish, /z/ and /s/ are both allophones of /s/, while /z appears only before voiced consonants, as in MISMO /mizmo/.

A series of minimal pairs, called a MINIMAL SET, can establish a larger group of contrasts. That is how the inventory of E consonantal PH_mes can be established. The series of words PIN, BIN, TIN, DIN, FIN, CHIN, GIN, KIN, SIN, THIN, SHIN, WIN supplies us with 12 words which are different in respect of only one speech sound, the first, consonantal phoneme of the sound sequence. These contrastive elements, or phonemes, are symbolized as /p/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /f/, / ʧ/ /ʤ/, /k/, /s/, /θ/, /ʃ/, /w/. Other sound sequences will show other consonantal oppositions, e.g.: (1) TAME, DAME, GAME, LAME, MAIM, NAME, adding /g/, /l/, /m/, /n/ to the inventory. (2) POT, TOT, COT, LOT, YACHT, HOT, ROT, adding /j/, /hr, /r/. (3) PIE, TIE, BUY, THIGH, THY, VIE, adding /ð/ and /v/. (4) TWO, DO, WHO, WOO, ZOO, adding /z/. Such comparative procedure reveal 22 consonantal phonemes, capable of contrastive function initially in a word. But considering one position in a word is not sufficient. Phonemic opposition in medial position discovers one more consonantal phoneme /ʒ/, in words LETTER, LEATHER, LEISURE. Phoneme /ʒ/ does not occur in initial position and is rare in final position (ROUGE). In final position we do not find /h/, /r/, /w/, and /j/. Phoneme /ŋ/ is common in medial and final positions but unknown initially. The analysis will give us a total of 24 consonantal phonemes in English, of which six are of restricted occurrence. Similar procedures may be used to establish the 20 vowel phonemes of English, which makes the total inventory of 44 units in the English language.

The FORMAL (DISTRIBUTIONAL) method does not resort to the meaning. It is based on the rule that allophones of different phonemes can freely occur in one and the same position, while allophones of one and the same phoneme can not occur in the same position. For example, as /p/ and /f/ freely occur in the same context (as in PEA-FEE, PAN-FAN), they are different phonemes. But we can never find /p/ aspirated and non-aspirated in the same phonetic context in E. These sounds are regarded as the allophones of one and the same phoneme /p/, whereas in Chinese and Hindi aspirated and non-aspirated plosives /p/ are different phonemes: they occur in the same phonetic environment and distinguish words.

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