39)The Phoneme Theory

The phoneme is a minimal abstract language unit realized in speech in the form of speech sounds opposable to other phonemes of the same language to distinguish the meaning of morphemes and words. (by Щерба)Phoneme. Series of phoneme.  The definitions of the phoneme vary greatly.  L.V.Shcherba: the phoneme may be viewed as a functional, material and abstract unit.  V.A.Vassilyev: The phoneme is a smallest unit capable of distinguishing one word from another word, one grammatical form of word from another  Bloch: phoneme is a class of phonemically similar sounds contrasting and mutually exclusive with all similar classes in the language  Jacobson: phoneme is a minimal sound by which meaning may be discriminated 

In this definition three aspects of the phoneme are represented:

1. material

2. abstract

3. functional

1. The material aspect

It is reflected in the following part of the definition: “realized in speech in the form of speech sounds”. In other words, each phoneme is realized in a set of predictable speech sounds which are called allophones.

Allophones of the phoneme [t]:

• in the combination “not there” – dental;

• in the word “try” – post-alveolar;

• in the word “stay” – not aspirated etc.

All these sounds are allophones of the same phoneme. They generally meet the following requirements:

1. They possess similar articulatory features, but at the same time they may show considerable phonetic differences.

2. They never occur in the same phonetic context.

3. They can’t be opposed to one another, they are not able to differentiate their meaning.

It is obvious that the difference between allophones is the result of surrounding sounds, the phonetic context. So we distinguish two types of allophones:

1. Principle allophones – don’t undergo any changes in the chains of speech. It is close to the sound pronounced in isolation.

2. Subsidiary allophones – in them we observe predictable changes under the influence of the phonetic context.

[d]

• manner of articulation: occlusive

• place of articulation: alveolar

• degree of noise: lenis

In such words as “door”, “down”, “dog” we observe the principle allophone of the phoneme [d] (usually before [ʌ], [ɑː], [ɔː], [ɔ]). Subsidiary:

• [d] is slightly palatalized before front vowels (“deep”, “deed”).

• [d] is pronounced without plosion before another stop (“good day”, “bad pain”).

• [d] is pronounced with nasal plosion before [m], [n] (“sudden”, “admit”) and with lateral plosion before [l] (“middle”).

• When followed by [r] it becomes post-alveolar (“dry”).

• Followed by interdental sounds, it becomes dental (“good thing”).

• When followed by [w] it becomes labialized (“dwell”).

• [d] is partly devoiced in the word final position (“dead”).

How do we approach the problem of teaching pronunciation? Our main concern is the principle allophone, because it is important in the terms of meaning. Subsidiary allophones are important as well, because your accent may suffer.

What do we actually pronounce?

phoneme —> allophone (phonetic context) —> phone

phone = allophone + individual, regional and phonostylictic difference