Methods of the identification of phonemes in a language
The 1st problem of phonological analysis is to establish the number and system of phonemes in the language. There are 2 methods of analysis:
1. DISTRIBUTIONAL METHOD – based on phonological rule that allophones of 1 phoneme occur only in different context, but phonemes occur in same. It is purely formal method of identifying the phonemes of a language. (used with Red Indians)
2. SEMANTIC METHOD - is opposite, it is based on the phonological rule that a phoneme can distinguish words when it is opposed to another phoneme in identical phonetic contexts (so-called minimal pairs: phonological and zero oppositions). (used by soviets to create written languages).
The distinctive and non-distinctive features of English vowels
Vowels have 2 main characteristics: length and quality. Quality is the distinctive feature of a vowel, regardless of the position of the vowel. It components:
1. stability of articulation (monophthongs, diphthongs, triphthongs, diphthongized vowels)
2. the position of the tongue (horizontal and vertical movement of the tongue, lip rounding)
Other components are:
1) lip position
2) tenseness
3) checkness
They are considered non-distinctive as they have no phonological value. Vowel LENGTH os also a non-distinctive feature. It is dependent on the phonetic context, in the particular on the following consonant. It is the so-called "positional length". Vowels are the longest in the open syllable, slightly shorter before a sonorant or a voiced consonant and they are the shortest before the voiceless consonant:
be [i:] - the longest
beed [i:d] - a bit shorter
beat [i:t] - much shorter
The distinctive and non-distinctive features of English consonants
Most phoneticians agree that distinctive features of English consonants are:
1. manner of articulation way in which the obstruction of the airstream is produced - Vasiliev's point of view (occlusives – 2 articulators form a complete closure which is suddenly released, constrictives – the 2 articulators come close together forming a stricture, affricates)
2. place of articulation – the location in the vocal tract where a particular speech sound is produced (labial:bilabial/labio-dental, lingual:dental/interdental/alveolar/palato-alveolar/post-alveolar, glottal)
3. degree of noise - Sokolova's point of view (noise, sonorants)
The following characteristics are not important from the phonological point of view but still very important for the articulation of sounds:
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1) palatalization – softening of the consonants due to the rising of the back of the tongue to the hard palate
2) aspiration – puff of air following the release of a plosive
3) nasalization- pronounce or utter (a speech sound) with the breath resonating in the nose
Problems of the phonemic inventory of English vowels
The 1st problem of the phonological analysis is to establish phonemes in a language. There are some difficulties in English:
1. IF THERE IS A SCHWA-VOWEL PHONEME? Though the schwa-vowel 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 the number of other phonemes and can distinguish words (accept-except, solar-solo).
2. IF DIPHTHONGS AND TRIPHTHONGS ARE MONOPHONEMIC OR BIPHONEMIC CLUSTERS? Trubetzkoy worked out a number of rules which help to determine whether a sound of a complex nature is monophonemic: 1) a phoneme is indivisible, as no syllable division can occur within a phoneme; 2) a phoneme is produced by 1 articulatory effort; 3) the duration of a phoneme should not exceed that of other phonemes in the language => 1. The syllabis and articulatory indivisibility of diphthongs and their duration of English historically vowels, clearly determine their monophonemic character. 2. triphthongs [aue, aie] are not produced by a single articulatory effort, as there is an increase in the force of articulation and intensity for the 1st and the last element. The syllabic division generally occurs in between the diphthong and the schwa-vowel. So they are regarded as biphonemic clusters.
In such a way it has been established that in RP there are 20 vowel phonemes (12 monophthongs, 8 diphthongs).
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