PHONEMIC ANALYSIS

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PHONEMIC ANALYSIS
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General assumption

• Speech is composed of phonemes
• Whenever a speech sound is produced, it is
  possible to identify which phoneme the sound in
  question belongs to.
• Still, there are various problems!

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AFFRICATES

• Phonetically, they are composed of a plosive
  fricative
• But, it is possible to treat each affricate as a
  single consonant phoneme (one-phoneme analysis)
• They can also be treated as composed of two
  phonemes each, all of which are established as
  independent phonemes in English (two-phoneme
  analysis)

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/t??t?/ /d??d?/

• In the first case they would be considered as
  consisting of 3 phonemes, in the second case of 5
  phonemes
• Which analysis is preferable?
• In the 2-phoneme analysis (no separtion of
  affricates) the total number of phonemes is
  smaller and should be preferred as more
  economical (the most efficient codes do not use
  unnecessary symbols)

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Still,

• 1-phoneme analysis is generally chosen by
  phonologists as preferable
• The arguments for
• 1. Phonetic/allophonic argument phonetic quality
  of /t/ and /?/ in /t?/ and /d?/ is different from
  realisations of the sounds mentioned found
  elsewhere, e.g. Different quality of /t/ in
  watch apes vs. what shapes
• - still, this argument is weak

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2. Distribution

• The proposed phonemes have distributions similar
  to other consonants, while other combinations of
  plosive fricative do not /t?/ and /d?/ are
  found initially, medially and finally while no
  other combination has such a wide distribution.
• However, there are several consonants in English
  accepted as phonemes in spite of not being free
  to occur in all positions (think of r, w, j, h,
  ?, ?/

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3. Combining with other cons.

• Free combining to form clusters would support the
  1-phoneme analysis
• Initially they never occur in clusters
• Finally, they can be followed by t,d and preceded
  by l, n
• Another combination pre-final l,n can occur with
  post-final t,d e.g. squelched, hindged
• So, /t?/ and /d?/ do not combine freely to form
  clusters, particularly not initially

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Two-phoneme analysis

• Initial /t?/ and /d?/ would have to be
  interpreted as initial t,d post-initial ?,?
  (besides l,r,w,j) which can combine with t,d, only

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4. Intuition of the native speaker

• Rather difficult to discover what native speakers
  (if untrained in phonetics and phonology) think
  or feel

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Other problems

• Sounds transcribed as hw, hj
• Velar nasal ? (should it be treated as a separate
  phoneme or an allophone of the phoneme n
  occurring before g)

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The English vowel system

• Treating all long vowels and diphthongs as
  composed of two vowel phonemes e.g. long vowels
  can be seen as containing short vowels twice,
  triphthongs would be composed of a basic vowel
  one of ?,? ? (which makes three phonemes
  altogether)

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Another way of treating long vowels and diphthongs

• As composed of a vowel a consonant (j, w, h,
  r), e.g. /ei/ - /ej/, /??/ - /?w/,
• /??/ - /?h/, /i/ - /ij/. /a/ - /ah/, /u/ -
  /uw/
• Thus, inequality of distribution is corrected
  for consonants that do not otherwise occur
  finally in a syllable.

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More about long vowels

• Remember NEUTRALISATION of /i/ and /i/ to /i/
  i.e. Cases where contrasts between phonemes which
  exist in other places disappear in certain
  contexts

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Syllabic consonants

• A possibility is to add new cons. Phonemes to the
  existing list syllabic l,r,n as in bottle,
  button, Hungary

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Clusters of s plosive

• P, t, k in syllable initial position are
  aspirated, but when preceded by s they become
  unaspirated and could perhaps be transcribed as
  b, d, g because contrast between these two groups
  of consonants become neutralised in this context

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Schwa /?/

• /?/ can be treated as an allophone of several
  vowels, not only of /?/ in unstressed syllables,
  e.g.
• Economy vs. economic
• German vs. Germanic

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DISTICTIVE FEATURES

• Distinctive feature analysis is one of many
  different ways of treating the notion of phoneme.
• The principle phonemes are not minimum,
  independent, indivisible units but combinations
  of different features.
• In a table showing presence or absence of
  features in different consonants there would be
  no phonemes with the same combination of s and
  s otherwise, they could not be treated as
  different phonemes

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Thank you!