Lecture 4. Phonological Aspect of Speech Sounds.

1.Phonemes and Allophones.

The study of the sounds from the point of view of their linguistic function resulted in distinguishing such phonetic unit as a p h o n e m e. Phoneme is the smallest language unit which exists in the speech of all people belonging to the same community in the form of speech sounds and may bring about the change of meaning.

The phoneme is a functional unit. That means that being opposed to other phonemes in the same phonetic context it is capable of differentiating the meaning, e.g.:

pie – tie Are you fond of cut?

or

lot – lit Are you fond of cart?

Phoneme has 3 functions 1. constitutive (phonemes exist in their material form speech sounds constitute morphemes, words, sentences all of each are meaningful)2. distinctive (it distinguishes one word from another, even whole sentences) 3. recognitive (it manifests in the process of identification: native speakers can identify combination of phonemes as meaningful units.)

The phoneme is realized in speech in the material form of speech sounds of different type. Various speech realizations of the phoneme are called its allophones. The difference between the allophones of the same phoneme is due to their position in various phonetic contexts. For example, The consonant [ d ] in the isolated position as well as in such a sound sequence as

[d ɒ t ] is a lenis voiced stop articulated with the tip of the tongue against the teeth ridge. In the position before an interdental constrictive [θ ] as in breadth it is formed with the tip of the tongue against the upper teeth, when [ d ] is followed by the post-alveolar [ r ] as in dry the tip of the tongue is placed behind the teeth ridge.

Allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same phonetic context. They cannot differentiate the meaning since there is no mutual opposition possible in this case. Such speech sounds are grouped into a phoneme and function as a language unit opposed to other language units, i.e. phonemes.

The basic method of establishing the phonemic status of a sound is the method of finding minimal pairs, which consists in finding at least one minimal pair of words which are different in respect of that sound: pit – bit. When two words are identical except for one sound which makes a contrast in the meaning of words, they are said to form a minimal pair, and the two sounds are different phonemes. The two phonemes are distinguished by at least one feature which is called distinctive (phonemic) feature. In English the following set of distinctive features is phonemic for the system of consonants: place of articulation, manner of production, presence or absence of voice, position of the soft palate. Quality is the only phonemic feature in the system of English vowels. Vowel quality depends on the height of the tongue and the front-back position of the tongue.

It is necessary to mention that on the one hand, the phoneme is objective real, because it is realized in speech in 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 phoneme as a dialectical unity of the material and abstract aspects. Thus we may state that it exists in the material form of speech sounds, its allophones. Speech sounds are necessarily allophones of one the phonemes of the language concerned. All the allophones of the same phoneme have some articulatory features in common, but simultaneously each allophone possesses quite particular phonetic features which may not be traced in the articulation of other allophones of the same phoneme. That is why while teaching pronunciation we cannot ask our pupils to pronounce this or that phoneme. We can only ask them to pronounce one of its allophones.