Different Approaches to the Study of a Phoneme.

 

Identifying a phoneme as a basic and non-separable speech unit the linguists however interpret it in different ways. In the history of linguistics there can be distinguished four approaches to the study of a phoneme:

1) The Psychological approach. The followers of the Psychological school in linguistics consider a phoneme as a psychical equivalent of a sound. According to this view on a phoneme, the sounds pronounced are incomplete realizations of ideal psychical images. That’s why there is a certain contrast between the sound pronounced and its ideal image. This point of view was introduced by the founder of the Phonemic theory, Russian linguist I.A. Bodoine – de- Courtenay. He was an active adherent of the so called Psychological school in linguistics, which was quite popular at the end of 19^th century. L.V. Sherba being his student and follower (an academician afterwards) in his early scientific work was under the influence of his teacher’s views and particularly shared his view on a phoneme.

N.S.Trubetskoy, the head of the Prague linguistic school, first shared the psychological view on a phoneme, but later he admitted that a phoneme is a linguistic, non- psychological phenomenon.

2) The Functional approach. Within this theory a phoneme was considered as a minimal speech unit, distinguishing the meaning of words. Phonetic peculiarities of the sounds pronounced in reality, allophones are not analyzed in this case. The capacity of distinguishing meaning of words is the only characteristic feature of a phoneme. The well-known American linguist L.Blumfield, adherent to this approach, defined a phoneme as a bunch of distinctive features which comprise its components and take part in distinguishing meaning of words. Changing even one of these features, we change the meaning of word and its grammatical form. Functional approach completely ignores non- distinctive features of a phoneme, and thus separates a phoneme from allophones.

3) The Abstract approach. This point of view on a phoneme represents an uttermost manifestation of the Functional approach. The Abstract approach was worked out by a Swiss linguist F.-de-Sossuire. Taking unto consideration that fact, that there is nothing except differences in the language, he viewed a phoneme as an incorporeal speech unit, which is not formed with its material substance, but solely with the (differences) distinctive features which separate its acoustic image from others.

4) Physical approach. This interpretation of a phoneme was introduced by a well-known British phonetician D.Jones, who defined a phoneme as a family of sounds, consisting of the main sound, as ‘the most respectful member of the family’ and other similar sounds, which are used instead of it in certain phonetic contexts. For example, a family of the phoneme /k/ may comprise the following members:

1) aspirated and non-labialized: car;

2) aspirated and labialized: cool;

3) aspirated and palatalized: key;

4) non- aspirated and labialized: quite, school;

5) non- aspirated and non-labialized: cry.

From the given survey it can be seen that each of the existing views on a phoneme exaggerates one of its aspects and disregards the others.

 

Phonetics and Phonology

The development of different approaches to the interpretation of a phoneme enriched the linguistic science in general and leads to the appearance within phonetics a separate branch called phonology.

What is the main distinction between phonetics and phonology?

Phonetics is the study of how speech sounds are made, transmitted and received i.e. phonetics is the study of all possible speech sounds. The human vocal apparatus can produce a wide range of sounds; but only a small number of them are used in the language to construct all its words and utterances.

Phonology is the study of these segmental (speech sound types) and prosodic (intonation) features which have a different value in the language. It studies the way in which speakers systematically use a selection of units – phonemes and intonemes in order to express meaning. It investigates the phonetic phenomena from the point of view of their use.

Within phonology two branches of study are usually recognized: segmental and supra-segmental. Segmental phonology analyses speech into discrete segments such as phonemes. Supra-segmental phonology analyses those features which extend over more than one segment such as intonation contours.

The primary aim of phonology is to discover the principles that govern the way that sounds are organized in languages, to determine which phonemes are used and how they pattern phonological structure of a language.

Phonology also solves:

1. the problem of the identification of the phonemes of the language:

2. the problem of the identification of the phoneme in particular word, utterance;

It establishes the system of phonemes and determines the frequency of occurrence in syllables, words, utterances. The distribution and grouping of phonemes and syllables in words are dealt with an area of phonology which is called phonotactics.

Phonology was originated in the 30s of the 20^th century by a group of linguists belonging to the Prague linguistic school – Vilem Matesius, Nicolai Trubetsoy, Roman Jakobson. The theoretical background of phonology is phoneme theory whose foundations were first laid down by I.A. Bodoine – de- Courtenay (1845-1929) in the last quarter of the 19th century (between the years 1868-1881). The most important work in phonology is THE GROUNDWORK OF PHONOLOGY (1939) by Nicolai Trubetsoy. He claimed that phonology should be separated from phonetics as it studies the functional aspect of phonic components of language. Phonetics is a biological science which investigates the sound-production aspect. Contemporary phoneticians hold the view that form and function cannot be separated and treat phonology as a linguistic branch of phonetics.

 

 

Questions and tasks:

1. What is a phoneme? What are allophones?

2. What is the basic method of establishing a phonemic status of a sound?

3. Give detailed characteristics of each approach to the study of a phoneme.

4. What is the difference between phonetics and phonology?

5. Phonology as a separate branch of phonetics.