1/ the theory of phonemic variance
2/ the theory of phonemic independence
Phonemic independence is very important as it may develop into two phonemes, on the other hand a phoneme may cease to function a such phoneme and may become a phonemic variant.
2) THE POST-REVOLUTIONARY PERIOD is characterized by his treating the phonemes as sound types which are capable of distinguishing the meaning and the form of words.
The various sounds which are universal and which are individual representing the universal are called PHONEMIC VARIANTS. And he characterized the phoneme as the dialectal unity of the individual and the universal that is speech sounds which are uttered in concrete sequenced and in general reflection in our mind.
Phonemes help to recognize words and morphemes and to distinguish one morpheme from another.
They form a system of phonemes – the set of oppositions.
N.S.Trubezkoy (1890-1938)
Was among those scholars whose works created quite a revolution in linguistics.
- The separation of Phonology from Phonetics
- The theory of phoneme opposition
- The theory of archiphoneme
He said that the main points of investigation in phonology should be like this:
- which sound features in a given language are distinctive.
- what connection there is between these distinctive features. According to what rules they can be combined into words and sentences.
He further developed his own system of opposition by giving special prominents to the following essential moments:
1) THE PHONEME which he defined as a unity of the phonologically relevant features of the sounds (distinctive features)
2) THE SPEECH SOUND which he defined as a unity of all the features both relevant and irrelevant (redundant) of a sound representing the phoneme in connected speech.
Trubezkoy emphasized the fact that the inventory of phonemes in the language is practically a correlation of its system of phonological oppositions.
Some oppositions may be neutralizes as f.e. the German oppositions of two phonemes (t,d) in final positions of words. The phoneme in the position of neutralization is the arch phoneme and in this case it may be defined as a unity of relevant features common to two phonemes, it is therefore an abstraction.
In Russia there are two main phonological schools which investigate phonemes of Russian: the Moscow school and the Leningrad school.
The representatives of the Moscow trend (A.A. Reformatsky, R.S.Kusnetsov, R.I.Avanesov, M.V. Panov et al.). They did a lot in its thorough and multilateral morpho-phonological analysis.
The representatives of the Leningrad school (L.V.Shcherba’s disciples: L.R.Zinder, O.I.Dikushina, V.A.Vassilyev, and et al.) analyze and investigate sounds as real speech units. Shcherba’s followers always care for the practical appliance of phonemic analysis. For example, in solving the problem of phoneme identification in the neutral position they advocate the autonomy of the phoneme, its independence from the morpheme, which is simpler for practical purposes.
7. The phoneme as the unit of phonology. Its properties and functions.
To know how sounds are produced by speech organs is not enough to describe and classify them as language units. To be able to characterize sounds from the linguistic point of view we should analyze the functional aspect of speech sounds.
It means that we should study phonemes (which mean sounds in their contrastive sense, as well as allophones as variants of phonemes, and strictly differentiate between them)
For instance: let-pet-met / Let-tell
We should also bear in mind that allophones usually occur in different environments, and can neither contrast with each other, nor make meaningful distinctions. So, to put it otherwise in a more laconic way we should say that phonemes are mutually distinctive speech sounds, while allophones are variants of one and the same phoneme which can never occur in one and the same position.
The phoneme is known to have its own properties and functions though they may differ from school to school even from scholar to scholar.
The Russian scholar Sherba was the first to defined phoneme as a function, material and abstract unit.
The official view of Russian phonological school propagates the following properties:
1. The phoneme is considered to be material, real and objective;
2. Abstractional
3. Functional
1. Firstly, the phoneme is characterized as material, real and objective, which means that it is realized in speech of all English speaking people in the form of speech sounds, its allophones. Traditionally scholars distinguish principles which don’t undergo any changes in speech.
For instance: sounds in isolation, or in the position like in words. ( door done down)
And subsidiary allophones (which undergo quite predictable changes in articulation, which occur under the Influence of the neighboring sounds in different phonetic environments.
For instance: di:l, did ju: ( produced palatalized variant of d)
Bed time, bad pain (d is pronounced without plosion till another stop)
Subsidiary, allophones can be either positional, or combinatory. There are two positional allophones in the English phonological system. They are clear and dark l. (ex. Lit – til)
All the other allophones are combinatory.
Consequently those allophones of the same phoneme posses similar articulatory features; they may frequently show considerable phonetic differences and it is mainly through these phonetic distinctions that the listener may pick up a great variety of information about the speaker; concerning the locality he lives, his education and social status, his age peculiarities and even his mood. So we may conclude that phonetic evidence is important for lexical and grammatical meaning, phonetic information created a more detailed description of the speaker.
2. Abstractional property.
Allophones of the same phoneme, no matter how different the articulation could be, function as the same linguistic unit, as a type of sound all the allophones represent. Phonemes appear to be abstractions from the particular representation of phonemes on speech. We should differentiate between phonetic and phonological mistakes. Phonetic mistakes occur if an allophone of some particular phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme. &
3. The phoneme is a functional unit because it serves to distinguish one morpheme from another, one utterance from another.
The positions of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiate the meaning of morphemes, words and utterances.
For instance: sad – says /Sleeper – sleepy/ Like-light
Sounds can function as phonemes only if they differ from one another – this is the way for the phoneme to fulfill the distinctive function and the other two functions : constitutive and recognitive.
For instance: He was heard badly. He was hurt badly.
8. Different views upon the phoneme.
There are many definitions of the phoneme which reflect different aspects of this linguistic unit. The first definition runs as follows: the phoneme is a minimal abstract linguistic unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds.
The phoneme is a functional unit. The functions that phonemes perform in the language are: constitutive (образующая), recognitive, distinctive.
The phoneme is material, real and objective. Phonemes realize themselves in speech through speech sounds, their allophones which are characterized by some phonetic similarity between them. The principle allophones are not subjected to obvious changes, subsidiary members are influenced by the neighbouring sounds.
There are different opinions on the nature of the phoneme and its definition among Russian and foreign linguists. I.A. Baudouin de Courtenay viewed phonemes as fictitious units and considered them to be only perceptions. Ferdinand de Saussure (France) viewed phonemes as the sum of acoustic impressions and articulatory movements. N.S.Trubetskoy (the Prague Linguistic School) defined the phoneme as a unity of phonologically relevant features. D.Jones, head of the London School of phonology, defined phonemes as a family of sounds. The phoneme theory in America was elaborated by the so-called structuralists L.Bloomfield, E.Sapir and others who define the phoneme as a minimum unit of distinctive sound-features, an “abstractional fiction…”. The representatives of the so called Copenhagen trend view all linguistic problem as “algebraic”(R.Jacobson, R.Halle).
L.V. Shcherba took the positive ideas from his teacher I.A.Baudouin de Courtenay, overcame the drawbacks of his theory and worked out a truly materialistic theory of phoneme. He was the first who defined the phoneme as a real independent distinctive unit, which manifests itself in the form of its allophones.
Phonemes are discovered by the method of minimal pairs, or by distinctive oppositions. This method consists in finding as many pairs of words as possible, which differ in one phoneme. The method of distinctive opposition enables one to prove whether the phonemic difference is relevant or not, e.g.
Depending on the number of relevant distinctive features oppositions can be (1) single, (2) double, and (3) multiple.
To establish the number of relevant and irrelevant features and to state whether the opposition is single, double, or multiple it is convenient: (1) to enumerate the characteristic features of the phonemes under discussion; (2) to mark distinctively irrelevant features by pluses and distinctively relevant features by minuses; (3) to count distinctively relevant features
9. English as a world language.
English is one of the major languages in the present day world.
English has become a world language because of its establishment as a mother tongue outside England in all the continents of the world. Actually this exporting of English began in the XVII th century with the first settlement on Northern America. Above all, it is the great growth of population in the USA, assisted by massive emigration in the XIX-XX centuries, that has given the English language its present standing in the world.
People who speak English nowadays fall into 3 groups:
1) Those who have leant it as the native language
2) Those who have leant it as the second language in the society which is bilingual
3) Those who are forced to use it for a practical purpose –administrative, professional, educational and cultural.
1 person in 7 of the entire world population belongs to one of these three groups. 75% OF THE WORLD’S MAIL AND 60% OF telephone calls are in English.
The recognition of English as world language doesn’t presuppose its spread in the world only. Linguists now believe that far from breaking away into mutually incomprehensible varieties English is developing a distinctive for of a world language – WORLD ENGLISH.
This particular for of the language has no geographical markers and has been described as standard international English , it is used by international investigations. Although each of these varieties has its own linguistic characteristics, linguists see the many common features as evidence that a standard WORLD ENGLISH is “emerging”.