Lecture 1 Phonetics as a Linguistic Science Plan

4. Dichotomic Classification of the Acoustic Distinctive Features of English Consonant Phonemes and its Articulatory Correlates

T he theory of distinctive features, which was suggested by Jakobson-Fant-Halle, is known as the acoustic classification. In fact, this theory represents the act of communication and shows the steps involved in inducing the hearer to select the same phonological element the speaker has selected. It may be illustrated as follows:

The acoustic representation of a distinctive feature corresponds to more than one articulatory feature. In many cases it does not take into consideration the existing allophones, i.e. non-distinctive features of phonemes. In such cases as distinguishing the dental /n/ as in tenth /ten/ from the alveolar /n/ no acoustic or perceptual feature can be used. These two allophones of the phoneme /n/ can be described only in articulatory terms.

The dichotomic (or binary-meaning to choose two elements or a pair of elements in logic sense) theory has many other shortcomings. Each of the distinctive features involves a choice between two terms of opposition. The mark (+) means “yes”, (-) - “no”, (0) - both distinctive features are possible.

A ccording to this theory 12-15 distinctive features are possible both for vowels and consonants in all languages. The starting point of this classification shows that two binary features define four major classes of segments (minimal segments of sound, which can be distinguished by their contrast within words are called phonemes).They are:

As we can notice in the above table /i/,/r/, /w/, /j/, are omitted be cause the liquids /l, r/ are vocalic and consonantal and the glides /j, w/ are non-vocalic and non-consonantal. Usually American linguists regard the semivowels /j/, /w/ to be positional variants of the lax vowels /i/, /u/, respectively. Thus, this binary classification has restrictions on these four classes. Besides, correlation between the acoustic and the articulatory classification is not very clear in this theory. In spite of the fact that the binary classification of the acoustic features has some shortcomings, it is often used as a universal framework in the description of the distinctive features of phonemes without any experimental research. It is useful to use the binary classification of the acoustic distinctive features after instrumental investigations, as the latter is helpful in making a correct classification. The articulatory correlates of the twelve pairs of acoustic features may correspond to more than twenty features, thanks to the division of the consonant classes. This correlation has its own difficulties which require experimental investigation as well. The articulatory classification is more useful in language teaching practice than the acoustic one.

The feature strident-mellow is distinctive for eight consonant phonemes of English, whereas it is not distinctive for the Uzbek consonants the distinctive feature strident-mellow is very important in Russian as the consonant phonemes form one more correlation on the basis of this feature (in Russian it is called “мягкие-твёрдые”) besides voiced-voiceless correlation.
6. Allophonic Variations of English Consonant Phonemes

G.P. Torsuyev distinguishes two types of variations of the English phonemes: a) diaphonic variation which does not depend on the position, i.e. the consonant quality and quantity of the phonemes; b) allophonic variation which depends on the position and changes its quality and quantity. He also gives a complete description of these variations is English.

The allophonic variations of the English and Uzbek consonant phonemes depend on their distribution in words, syllables and junctures and also on the phonotactic rules (combinations of sounds or sound sequences). The allophones of a phoneme may be established on the basis of the complementary distribution. Two acoustically similar speech sounds which never occur in a certain position are regarded the allophones of a phoneme. The pronunciation of the allophones may vary in different positions i.e. in initial, medial, final positions of words, syllables and also in neighbourhood positions, in stressed and unstressed positions. The way three phases of articulation act to combine the sounds in the structure of words and syllables is also essential. It is very complicated to describe all the allophonic variations of the consonant phonemes. Therefore, we give the general rules of the occurrence of the allophones.

The phonemes /p, t, k/ have rather marked positional allophones. Before a stressed vowel, whether alone or followed by a sonorant or other consonant; they have aspirated allophones /ph, th, kh/: pin, play, proud, pure, tin, true, twice, tune, key, clean, crop, cure, quick. The alveolar phonemes /t, d, n, l/ have dental allophones before the fricative consonants // or /ð/ of the same or following word: health, eighth, tenth, width, the ticket, all those, bell tune etc. The phonemes /t, d, n, l/ have post alveolar allophones before /r/: true, drink, country, hungry, children, etc. The lateral sonant /r/ has rather striking allophones and regional diaphones, when /r/ follows / / or /ð/ it has an alveolar allophone, for example – through, the right hand. In prevocalic and intervocalic positions it has an apical allophone: cherry, merry, glory, far out, store it etc. After aspirated voiceless stops, as in proud, try, cry, it has a partially voiceless allophone.

Diaphone variation may be observed when /n/ is pronounced in stead of /ŋ/ in words like strength, length. The prefixes con-, in-, syn-, when stressed, have /ŋ/ besides a following /n/ before a following /k/, as in conquest, concord, income, syncope etc. The vowel-like allophone of the phoneme /j/ may occur in such words as curious, Indian, Genius etc.

Many other allophones of the English consonant phonemes may occur in the various sound combinations. English is rich in initial medial and final combinations of consonants. Many of them do not occur in Uzbek.