Task 1. Think about the following questions for class discussion.

What are the relations between language and speech?

Language is often defined as the most important means of human intercourse.
Language can perform this function only as a language of science because spoken
words in all languages consist of speech sounds, and speech without words is
impossible. Letters only represent spoken words in writing.
The materialistic conception of language is based on the thesis that language can
exist only in the material form of speech sounds.
What Is Language? What Is Speech?
Kelly's 4-year-old son, Tommy, has speech and language problems. Friends and
family have a hard time understanding what he is saying. He speaks softly, and his
sounds are not clear.
Jane had a stroke. She can only speak in one- to two-word sentences and cannot
explain what she needs and wants. She also has trouble following simple directions.
Language is different from speech.
Language is made up of socially shared rules that include the following:
What words mean (e.g., "star" can refer to a bright object in the night sky or a
celebrity)
How to make new words (e.g., friend, friendly, unfriendly)
How to put words together (e.g., "Peg walked to the new store" rather than "Peg
walk store new")
What word combinations are best in what situations ("Would you mind moving your
foot?" could quickly change to "Get off my foot, please!" if the first request did not
produce results)
Speech is the verbal means of communicating. Speech consists of the following:
Articulation
How speech sounds are made (e.g., children must learn how to produce the "r"
sound in order to say "rabbit" instead of "wabbit").
Voice
Use of the vocal folds and breathing to produce sound (e.g., the voice can be
abused from overuse or misuse and can lead to hoarseness or loss of voice).
Fluency
The rhythm of speech (e.g., hesitations or stuttering can affect fluency).
When a person has trouble understanding others (receptive language), or sharing
thoughts, ideas, and feelings completely (expressive language), then he or she has
a language disorder.

When a person is unable to produce speech sounds correctly or fluently, or has

problems with his or her voice, then he or she has a speech disorder.
In our example, Tommy has a speech disorder that makes him hard to understand. If
his lips, tongue, and mouth are not moved at the right time, then what he says will
not sound right. Children who stutter, and people whose voices sound hoarse or
nasal have speech problems as well.
Jane has a receptive and expressive language disorder. She does not have a good
understanding of the meaning of words and how and when to use them. Because of
this, she has trouble following directions and speaking in long sentences. Many
others, including adults with aphasia and children with learning disabilities, have
language problems.
Language and speech disorders can exist together or by themselves. The problem
can be mild or severe. In any case, a comprehensive evaluation by a speechlanguage pathologist (SLP) certified by the American Speech-Language-Hearing
Association (ASHA) is the first step to improving language and speech problems.
Define the phonetic system of a language. What units does it include?
If we want to speak about the phonetic system, it may be helpful to think of this as
similar to the set of cards used in a card game or the set of pieces used in a game
of chess. In chess, for example, the exact shape and colour of the pieces are not
important to the game as long as they can be reliably distinguished. But the
number of pieces, the moves they can make and their relationship to all the other
pieces are very important; we would say that if any of these were to be changed,
the game would no longer be what we call chess. Similarly, playing-cards can be
printed in many different styles and sizes; but while changing these things does not
affect the game played with them, if we were to remove one card from the pack or
add one card to it before the start of a game, nobody would accept that we were
playing the game correctly. In a similar way, we have a more or less fixed set of
"pieces" (phonemes) with which to play the game of speaking English. There may
be many slightly different realizations of the various phonemes, but the most
important thing for communication is that we should be able to make use of the full
set of phonemes (Roach 1988: 36).
The phonetic system or structure of English, like that of any language, is a systemic
combination of all the five components of the sound matter of language, which
constitute the material (phonic) forms of all the morphemes, words, phrases and
sentences in the language and serve a speaker of the language to express
adequately in his utterances his own and other people's thoughts, volition, feelings,
emotions, and attitudes towards the contents of his utterances and towards reality.
The components of the sound matter of language manifest themselves in the
components of its phonetic system, without, however, fully coinciding with the
latter, i.e. several components of the sound matter of language may participate in
the formation of one component of its phonetic system. Each component of the
phonetic system of a language is, in its turn, systemic in character, and all the
components have developed historically in close connection and interdependence
with the historical development of the vocabulary and the grammatical structure of

the language in the process of its use as a means of intercommunication by all the
members of the language community.

The first and basic component of the phonetic structure of English is the system of
its segmental phonemesexisting in the material form of their allophones constituted
by the spectral, fundamental frequency, force and temporal components of the
sound matter of language in various combinations.
The systemic character of the phonemic component of the phonetic structure of any
language is reflected in various classifications of its phonemes in which the latter
are invariably divided first into two fundamental sound types vowels and
consonants with further subdivisions of each sound type according to the
principles of vowel and consonant classifications.
The phonemic structure of any language, as it is reflected in these classifications, is
more or less symmetric, i.e. its phonemes are grouped in them in series which turn
out to be more or less symmetrically arranged.
The phonemic component of the phonetic structure of the English language
manifests itself not only in the system of its phonemes as discrete isolated units,
but also in combinations of their allophones occurring in words and the junction of
words in phrases and sentences. The combinations of allophones in words are also
systemic in character, in the sense that the allophones of a phoneme occur only in
definite positions and, therefore, in combination with definite allophones of other
phonemes, and not just in any position and in combination with any other sound.
For instance, the English sounds [V] and [N] never occur at the beginning of a word,
whereas the sounds [] and [h] never occur at the end of English words. There is
not a single Russian word which begins with the vowel [] (when pronounced in
isolation, as an item of vocabulary, or a citation form), and no voiced noiseconsonant is pronounced in Russian immediately before a voiceless consonant or at
the end of a word before silence (pause).
Thus the phonemic component of the phonetic system of English has three aspects,
or manifestations: (1) the system of its phonemes as discrete isolated units which
may occur in speech as isolated sounds constituting monophonemic words and,
sometimes, even sentences; (2) the distribution of the allophones of the phonemes;
and (3) the methods of joining speech sounds together in words and at their
junction, or the methods of effecting VC, CV, CC, and VV transitions.
The second component of the phonetic system of English is the syllabic structure of
its wordsboth in citation forms and in phrases and sentences. The syllabic structure
of words has two aspects which are inseparable from each other: syllable formation,
and syllable division, or syllable separation. Both aspects are sometimes designated
by the cover term syllabification.
Languages may differ from one another both in syllable formation and syllable
division.

Differences in syllable formation involve differences in the capacity of speech

sounds to form syllables (to be syllabic) in different positions.
The third component of the phonetic system of English is the accentual structure of
its wordsas items of its vocabulary (i.e. as pronounced in isolation, but not in
phrases or sentences).
The accentual structure of words has three aspects: (1) the physical (acoustic)
nature of word accent; (2) the position of the accent in disyllabic and polysyllabic
words; (3) the degrees of word accent.
Languages may differ in all these aspects of word accent.
The fourth component of the phonetic system of English is the intonational structure
of sentences in it.
The four components of the phonetic system of English (phonemic, syllabic,
accentual, and intonational) all constitute its pronunciation (in the broadest sense of
the term).
Therefore, the knowledge of the phonetic system of the English language by a
student of phonetics and the mastery of its pronunciation by a language-learner
involve the study and mastery of each component of its phonetic structure.
Each of these components should be studied from the following viewpoints:
physiological (articulatory and auditory), acoustic and functional (after Vassilyev
1970: 30-34).
There are other treatments of phonetic systems. Phonetic system is the system of
phones used in particular language. In human spoken languages, the sound of a
word is not defined directly (in terms of mouth gestures and noises). Instead, it is
mediated by encoding in terms of a phonological system:
A word's pronunciation is defined as a structured combination of a small set of
elements:
1. The available phonologicalelements and structures are the same for all words
(though each word uses only some of them)
2. The phonological system is defined in terms of patterns of mouth gestures and
noises.
This "grounding" of the system is called phonetic interpretation. Phonetic
interpretation is the same for all words. Within the performance of a given word on
a particular occasion, the (small) amount of information relevant to the identity of
the word is clearly defined. Phonetic interpretation is general, i.e. independent of
word identity. Every performance of every word by every member of the speech
community helps teach phonetic interpretation, because it applies to the
phonological system as a whole, rather than to any particular word.
The phoneme is an abstract linguistic unit; it is an abstraction from actual speech
sounds, that is allophonic modifications. Native speakers do not observe the
difference between the allophones of the phoneme. At the same time they realize,

quite subconsciously of course, that allophone of each phoneme possesses a bundle

of distinctive features, that makes this phoneme functionally different from all other
phonemes of the language concerned This functionally relevant bundle of
articulatory features is called the invariant of the phoneme. Neither of the
articulatory features that form the invariant of the phoneme can be changed
without affecting the meaning.
The articulatory features which form the invariant of the phoneme are called
distinctive or relevant. To extract relevant feature of the phoneme we have to
oppose it to some other phoneme in the same phonetic context. If the opposed
sounds differ in one articulatory feature and this difference brings about changes in
the meaning of the words the contrasting features are called relevant. For example,
the words port and court differ in one consonant only, that is the word port has the
initial consonant [p], and the word court begins with [k]. Both sounds are occlusive
and fortis, the only difference being that [p] is labial and [k] is backlingual.
Therefore it is possible to say that labial and backlingual articulations are relevant in
the system of English consonants.
The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning are called nondistinctive, irrelevant or redundant; for instance, it is impossible in English to
oppose an aspirated [p] to a non-aspirated one in the same phonetic context to
distinguish meanings. That is why aspiration is a non-distinctive feature of English
consonants.
As it has been mentioned above any change in the invariant of the phoneme affects
the meaning. Naturally, anyone who studies a foreign language makes mistakes in
the articulation of particular sounds. L.V. Shcherba classifies the pronunciation errors as phonological and phonetic.
If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a different
phoneme the mistake is called phonological, because the meaning of the word is
inevitably affected. It happens when one or more relevant features of the phoneme
are not realized.
When the vowel [i:] in the wordbeat becomes slightly more open, more advanced or
is no longer diphthongized the word beat may be perceived as quite a different
wordbit. It is perfectly clear that this type of mistakes is not admitted in teaching
pronunciation to any type of language learner.
If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same
phoneme the mistake is called phonetic. It happens when the invariant of the
phoneme is not modified and consequently the meaning of the word is not affected,
e.g.: wd - wt, hv - hv, fv - ff.
When the vowel [i:] is fully long in such a word as sheep, for instance, the quality of
it remaining the same, the meaning of the word does not change. Nevertheless
language learners are advised not to let phonetic mistakes into their pronunciation.
If they do make them the degree of their foreign accent will certainly be an obstacle
to the listener's perception (after Sokolova 1996: 45-47).
What are the sources of speech sounds?

All speech sounds have 4 aspects (mechanisms):

Articulatoty it is the way when the sound-producing mechanism is
investigated, that is the way the speech sounds are pronounced
Acoustic speech sound is a physical phenomenon. It exists in the form
of sound waves which are pronounced by vibrations of the vocal cords. Thus each
sound is characterized by frequency, certain duration. All these items represent
acoustic aspect.
Auditory sound perception aspect. The listener hears the sound,
percepts its acoustic features and the hearing mechanism selects from the acoustic
information only what is linguistically important.
Functional every language unit performs a certain function in actual
speech. Functional aspect deals with these functions.
In accord with these 4 aspects of speech sounds 4 branches are
distinguished, each of them has its own method of investigation:
Articulatoty phonetics - studies (investigates) sound producing
mechanism. Its method consists of observing the way in which the air is set in
motion, the movements of the speech organs and the coordination of these
movements in the production of single sounds and trains of sounds. It borders with
anatomy and physiology and the tools for investigating just what the speech organs
do are tools which are used in these fields: direct observation, wherever it is
possible, e.g. lip movement, some tongue movement; combined with x-ray
photography or x-ray cinematography; observation through mirrors as in the
laryngoscopic jivestigation of vocal cord movement, etc.
Acoustic phonetics - studies the way in which the air vibrates between
the speaker''s mouth and the listener''s ear. Has its basic method instrumental.
Speech sounds are investigated by means of operator called spectrograph.
Intonation is investigated by intonograph. Acoustic phonetics comes close to
studying physics and the tools used in this field enable the investigator to measure
and analyse the movement of the air in the terms of acoustics. This generally
means introducing a microphone into the speech chain, converting the air
movement into corresponding electrical activity and analysing the result in terms of
frequency of vibration and amplitude of vibration in relation to time. The use of such
technical devices as spectrograph, intonograph and other sound analysing and
sound synthesizing machines is generally combined with the method of direct
observation.
Auditory phonetics- the branch of phonetics investigating the hearing
process. Its interests lie more in the sensation of hearing, which is brain activity,
than in the physiological working of the ear or the nervous activity between the ear
and the brain. The means by which we discriminate sounds quality, sensations of
pitch, loudness, length, are relevant here. The methods applied in auditory
phonetics are those of experimental psychology: experimenting, usually based on
different types of auditory tests,

Functional phonetics is also termed phonology. Studies the way in

which sound phenomena function in a particular language, how they are utilized in
that language and what part they play in manifesting the meaningful distinctions of
the language. So this is the branch of phonetics that studies the linguistic function
of consonant and vowel sounds, syllabic structure, word accent and prosodic
features, such as pitch, stress and tempo. In linguistics, function is usually
understood to mean discriminatory function, that is, the role of the various
elements of the language in the distinguishing of one sequence of sounds, such as a
word or a sequence of words, from another of different meaning. The basic method
is commutation or substitution (), substituting sounds in different
environments.
In what way does the listener perceive the acoustic properties of speech
sounds?
Acoustic speech sound is a physical phenomenon. It exists in the form of
sound waves which are pronounced by vibrations of the vocal cords. Thus each
sound is characterized by frequency, certain duration. All these items represent
acoustic aspect.
Acoustic phonetics - studies the way in which the air vibrates between the
speaker''s mouth and the listener''s ear. Has its basic method instrumental.
Speech sounds are investigated by means of operator called spectrograph.
Intonation is investigated by intonograph. Acoustic phonetics comes close to
studying physics and the tools used in this field enable the investigator to measure
and analyse the movement of the air in the terms of acoustics. This generally
means introducing a microphone into the speech chain, converting the air
movement into corresponding electrical activity and analysing the result in terms of
frequency of vibration and amplitude of vibration in relation to time. The use of such
technical devices as spectrograph, intonograph and other sound analysing and
sound synthesizing machines is generally combined with the method of direct
observation.
Why is it important to train ones hearing abilities in foreign language
learning?
Listening As A Key Skill and I`m totally agree with it. I guess, what i am trying to
say is that listening is extremely important. Since then, Ive met many people who
are fully functional in the language of their choice just because they understand
what they hear. Its not that surprising when you think about it. EVERY complex skill
is comprised of a number of smaller elements. These elements, in turn, are
comprised of even smaller elements.
So you can say roughly that communication is nothing more than being able to
understand what you hear and being able to express yourself.
But as I so painfully learned, listening is much more important.
Thats what makes any kind of social interaction possible.
Since then, I established listening and speaking as a core of my language skills.

These skills require an immediate response.

Listening provides you with more sensory channels, such as: emotions, hearing
visual stimuli (when you listen and watch something).
Thats why its much easier for you to remember real life conversations than
excerpts from articles.
The final and essential reason to opt for listening is that nobody cares if you read or
write slowly. While doing these things, you can typically take your time to doublecheck anything your heart desires.
Smith is such a slow reader. I think Ill fire him..
Yep, I also have never heard of such a situation.
However, it is important to note that writing and reading are interconnected with
speaking and listening. And the progress in any of these areas influence one
another
Why is phonetics placed among linguistic sciences and not among
physiological or physical ones?
Because phonetics I an independent branch of linguistics like lexicology, grammar
and stylistics. It studies the sound matter its aspects and functions.
What is phonology? Why is it called functional phonetics?
Phonology is a branch of linguistics concerned with the systematic organization
of sounds in languages. It has traditionally focused largely on the study of
the systems of phonemes in particular languages (and therefore used to be also
called phonemics, orphonematics), but it may also cover any linguistic
analysis either at a level beneath the word (including syllable, onset
and rime,articulatory gestures, articulatory features, mora, etc.) or at all levels of
language where sound is considered to be structured for conveying linguistic
meaning.
Phonology also includes the study of equivalent organizational systems in sign
languages. There are also some differences between phonetics and phonology:
The difference between phonetics and phonology is that phonetics deals with the
physical production of these sounds while phonology is the study of sound patterns
and their meanings both within and across languages.
Phonetics is strictly physical while phonology also pays attention to the function or
meaning of a sound.
Phonetics only asks, Does this sound go here or not? Phonology asks, Does the
meaning change if I put this sound here instead of that one?
Phonetics makes a pretty general description of sounds and can be used to
describe sounds in any language. Phonology makes very detailed descriptions of
sounds, so each language has its own unique set of symbols (because no two
languages use all of the exact same sounds) [9].
We can say that phonetics belongs to descriptive linguistics <#"justify">sum up we
can say that phonetics is concerned with how sounds are produced, transmitted and
perceived. Phonology is concerned with how sounds function in relation to each

other in a language. So phonetics is about sounds of language, phonology about

sound systems of language.
It was very important to find out differences between phonetics and phonology. We
can say that phonetics focuses on the physical manifestations of speech sounds and
on theories of speech production and perception. And phonology is concerned with
the systems of rules (or constraints) that determine how the sounds of a language
combine and influence one another. Phonology cares about the entire sound system
for a given language. The goal is to formulate a model/theory which explains not
only the sound patterns found in a particular language, but the patterns found in all
languages.
We also observed the development of studies and fields of learning.the report we
could learn that phonetics plays an important part in various applications of
linguistics. A study of phonetics has educational value for almost everyone, realizing
the importance of language in human communication.knowledge of the structure of
sound systems, and of the articulatory and acoustic properties of the production of
speech is indispensable in the teaching of foreign languages.
Definition
Phonology is the study of how sounds are organized and used in natural
languages.
Discussion
The phonological system of a language includes

an inventory of sounds and their features, and

rules which specify how sounds interact with each other.

Phonology is just one of several aspects of language. It is related to other

aspects such as phonetics, morphology, syntax, and pragmatics.

Here is an illustration that shows the place of phonology in an interacting

hierarchy of levels in linguistics:

Comparison: Phonology and phonetics

Phonetics

Is the basis for

phonological analysis.

Phonology

Is the basis for further

work in morphology,
syntax, discourse, and
orthography design.

Analyzes the production Analyzes the sound

of all human speech
patterns of a particular
sounds, regardless of
language by
language.
determining which
phonetic sounds
are significant,
and

explaining how
these sounds are
interpreted by the
native speaker.

Models of phonology
Different models of phonology contribute to our knowledge of phonological
representations and processes:

In classical phonemics, phonemes and their possible combinations

are central.

In standard generative phonology, distinctive features are central.

A stream of speech is portrayed as linear sequence of discrete soundsegments. Each segment is composed of simultaneously occurring
features.

In non-linear models of phonology, a stream of speech is

represented as multidimensional, not simply as a linear sequence of
sound segments. These non-linear models grew out of generative
phonology:
o

autosegmental phonology

metrical phonology

lexical phonology

3)What is the difference between a phoneme and an allophone?

A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in speech. When children first begin to
read, we teach that phonemes have distinctive sounds that are represented by
letters and that each phoneme carries distinct word meaning. For example, the
word 'cat' has three phonemes, 'c' 'a' and 't', but if 'c' is changed for the other
phoneme 'mat', the meaning of the word changes.
Allophones are variations in the realization (or sound) of phonemes, like the
different pronunciations of the phoneme 't' in the word 'tar' and the word 'letter',
where the 't' allophone (sound) is softened to a 'd' sound. Allophones do not
indicate a change in the meaning of the word, nor do they indicate a change in the
phoneme used to make up the word.
A difference between the two is that changing the phoneme changes the meaning
of the word, whereas changing the allophone changes the sound of the realization
of word but does not change the meaning of the word.
What is a Phoneme?

The smallest sound unit that can be used in many different words but sounds the
same in all words such as the smallest sound of /p/ in words like pot, spot, spit,
phase etc. Though the sound made in all these words is not identical, the sound of
phoneme p is perceived as same and believed to be making use of the same
phoneme /p/.

What is an Allophone?

For a single phoneme, there can be a number of different sounds that can be made.
These sounds become clear when we place a piece of paper in front of our mouths

and see the reaction when making different sounds with the same phoneme. Thus,
different sounds made using the same phoneme are called its allophones.

What is the difference between Phoneme and Allophone?

Phonemes are basic sound units. They are significant and non-predictable.

In different positions, in different words, phonemes have different sounds. This is

when they are called allophones which are non-significant and predictable.

The main distinction between a phoneme and an allophone lies in what is there in
your mind and what comes out through your mouth
The various speech sounds that we actually pronounce are called phonetic
variants or allophones.
I/ Allophones are classified into: typical or principal andsubsidiary. The typical
variant of the phoneme is free from the influence of the neighbouring sounds and
it is the most representative of all allophones.
For example, the English consonant [k] as pronounced in the word "kite" [kait]
has all the characteristic features included in the phonetic definition and
description of the phoneme [k], namely: it is backlingual, plosive, aspirated and
voiceless. Therefore it is the principal variant of the English [k] phoneme. In the
word "fact" [fkt] the sound [k] lacks two of the characteristic features of the
principal variant of the English [k] phoneme. It is not plosive and aspirated.
Therefore it is a non-plosive, non-aspirated subsidiary variant of the English [k]
phoneme.
II/ Allophones can be positional and combinatory. Positional allophones are used in
certain positions traditionally. For example, the English [1] phoneme is always
"clear" in the initial position and "dark" in the terminal position. Combinatory
allophones appear as the result of assimilation, adaptation, accommodation - that is
when one phoneme influences another.

4)What language units is phonology concerned with?

The truly materialistic view of the phoneme was originated by the linguist - L.V.
Shcherba. According to L.V. Shcherba the phoneme may be viewed as a functional,
material and abstract unit. Phonology the branch of linguistics that deals with the
sound structure of language and that studies the structure and function of the
meaningless, minimum distinctive units of a language, that is, syllables and
phonemes.

Phonology, in contrast to phonetics, focuses not on sounds as individual phenomena

but on the function they fulfill in speech as components of more complex semantic
units--morphemes and words. For this reason, phonology is sometimes called
functional phonetics. The Russian linguist N. S. Trubetskoi defined the relationship
between phonology and phonetics as follows: the basis of any phonological
description is the determination of distinctive sound oppositions, and a phonetic
description is the basis and the source of material for a phonological description.
The basic unit of phonology is the phoneme, and phonology focuses on the study of
phonemic oppositions, which in their aggregate constitute a language's
phonological system, or its phonological paradigmatics. A phonemic system is
described in terms of distinctive features, which are the basis of phonemic
oppositions. Distinctive features are combinations of articulatory and acoustic
properties of sounds and are manifested in such phonemic contrasts as voicedvoiceless and open-closed. A major concept of phonology, that of position,
facilitates the description of phonological syntagmatics, that is, the principles
according to which phonemes are manifested within the different environments of
the speech sequence. In particular, phonological syntagmatics deals with the
principles according to which phonemic oppositions and phonemic positional
variations are neutralized.
In accordance with the widely accepted theory of the organization of language into
levels, phonology distinguishes segmental (phonemic) and suprasegmental
(prosodic) levels of language. In suprasegmental levels of language there are units
that correspond to such phonemes on the segmental level as the prosodeme and
toneme. These phonemes are also described in terms of certain distinctive features,
for example, the features of register and contour, which describe tonal oppositions.
The main function of both segmental and suprasegmental units of phonology is to
identify and differentiate meaningful units of language.
Phonology also investigates the demarcative function of sound units, that is, the
signaling of word and morpheme boundaries in the spoken chain. An example of a
phonological boundary signal is the fixed stress in Czech, which indicates the
beginning of a word. The German phonemes [h] and [?] may occur only at the
beginning and end of a word, respectively, thus indicating its boundaries. A final
function of phonological units, and particularly of such suprasegmental features as
duration and pitch, is to express the emotional state of the speaker and his attitude
toward what is being said.
Synchronic phonology studies the phonological system of a language at a certain
historical period. Diachronic phonology, on the other hand, provides a phonological
explanation of phonetic changes taking place during the history of a language by
describing the phonologization, dephonologization, and rephonologization of sound
distinctions, that is, the transformation of positional variants of a single phoneme
into independent phonemes, the elimination of a given phonemic opposition, and
alterations in the basis of phonemic opposition, respectively.
5)What aspects of the phoneme have been discovered by phoneticians?
Thee aspects of the phoneme.
1. the phoneme is a functional unit. Function is usually understood to mean
discriminatory function, that is, the role of the various components of the phonetic
system of the language in distinguishing one morpheme from another, one word
from another or also one utterance from another.

The opposition of phonemes in the same phonetic environment differentiates the

meaning of morphemes and words.
said says
sleeper sleepy
bath path
light like
Sometimes the opposition of phonemes serves to distinguish the meaning of the
whole phrases:.
He was heard badly He was hurt badly.
Thus we may say that the phoneme can fulfill the distinctive function.
2. the phoneme is material, real and objective. That means it is realized in speech in
the form of speech sounds, its allophones. The phonemes constitute the material
form of morphemes, so this function may be called constitutive function.
3. the phoneme performs the recognitive function, because the use of the right
allophones and other phonetic units facilitates normal recognition. We may add that
the phoneme is a material and objective unit as well as an abstract and generalized
one at the same time.
Three aspects singled out by Shcherba (abstract, material, functional) provide us
with the basis for classification of the phoneme theories. According to which aspect
of the phoneme is particularly favored by the linguists, we distinguish three groups
of conceptions. Conceptions based on abstract aspect. There are several varieties of
them. Mentalistic psychological (originated by B. de C.). It defines the phoneme as
an ideal psychical image of the sound ( ). Actually
pronounced speech sounds are in perfect realization of such images. There is a
discrepancy of intended sound and the one actually pronounced. This view was
sheared by Sapir, Zommerfield (phonemes as models which speakers seek to
reproduce) and was elaborated by generative phonology and the idea of the
phoneme as a target was recently been used again, although under different
terminology by Tatham. In another variety of entirely conception called abstract
the acoustic and physiological properties of the phoneme are completely ignored. It
was originated by . -
, ,
, ,
.Others: Hjelsmlev, Shaumyan. In the second
group, psychical, the material aspect is brought to an extreme, while its abstract
character is denied. The psychical view regards the phoneme as a family of related
speech sounds. A mechanical sum of such sounds: from a philosophical point of
view, such definitions may be qualified as vulgarly materialistic,
metaphysical. Criticize: The concept of the house is not a mechanical sum of all the
houses existing in the world; a phoneme cant be viewed as the sum of all the
speech sounds (variants). Supporters: Daniel Johns, Block and Trager. It views the
phoneme as a group of articulatory similar sounds without any regard to abstract
and functional aspects of a phoneme. Functional aspect. This group of conceptions
regards the phoneme as the min sound unit by which meaning may be
differentiated. Meaning differentiation is important; its the basic characteristic of a
phoneme. These conceptions disregard material & abstract character of the
phoneme. Its only the distinctive function of speech sounds, but it ignores
constrictive & recognative. A phoneme is not a family of sounds, since in every
sound there are only a certain number of articulatory features, involved in the
differentiation of meaning. Its the so-called distinctive features of the sound, which

make up the phoneme corresponding to it. Trubetzkoy:

(+Haley?). These distinctive features become
distinctive in oppositional sets. Some approaches within these take oppositions as
the basic elements of phonological structure (Plotkin, ,
Broomfield).
The problems of phonological analysis.
The aim of the phonological analysis is, firstly, to determine which differences of
sounds are phonemic (i.e. relevant for the differentiation of the phonemes) and
which are non-phonemic and, secondly, to find the inventory of the phonemes of
this or that language.
A number of principles have been established for ascertaining the phonemic
structure of a language. For an unknown language the procedure of identifying the
phonemes of a language as the smallest language units has several stages. The
first step is to determine the minimum recurrent segments segmentation of speech
continuum) and to record them graphically by means of allophonic transcription. To
do this an analyst gathers a number of sound sequences with different meanings
and compares them. For example, the comparison of [stik] and [sti:k] reveals the
segments (sounds) [i] and [i:], comparison of [stik] and [spik] reveals the segments
[st] and [sp] and the further comparison of these two with [tIk] and [taek], [sik] and
[si:k] splits these segments into smaller segments [s], [t], [p]. If we try to divide
them further there is no comparison that allows us to divide [s] or [t] or [p] into two,
and we have therefore arrived at the minimal segments. From what we have shown
it follows that it is possible to single out the minimal segments opposing them to
one another in the same phonetic context or, in other words, in sequences which
differ in one element only.
The next step in the procedure is the arranging of sounds into functionally similar
groups. We do not know yet what sounds are contrastive in this language and what
sounds are merely allophones of one and the same phoneme. There are two most
widely used methods of finding it out. They are the distributional method and the
semantic method. The distributional method is mainly used by phoneticians of
"structuralist" persuasions [28].
These phoneticians consider it to group all the sounds pronounced by native
speakers into phonemes according to the two laws of phonemic and allophonic
distribution.
These laws were discovered long ago and are as follows:
1. Allophones of different phonemes occur in the same phonetic context.
2. Allophones of the same phoneme never occur in the same phonetic context.
The fact is that the sounds of a language combine according to a certain pattern
characteristic of this language. Phonemic opposability depends on the way the
phonemes are distributed in their occurrence. That means that in any language
certain sounds do not occur in certain positions.

Task 2.
a) to illustrate articulatory and functional distinctions
between English and Russian speech sounds;