3. The semantic method in phonology

Phonemes can be also discovered by a semantic method, or the method of minimal pairs - pairs the distinctive differences between the members of which are based upon one distinctive difference.. This method consists in finding pairs of words which differ in one phoneme. For example, if we replace [b] by [t] in the word ban we produce a new word tan, ban — tan is a pair of words distinguished in meaning by a single sound change. Two words of this kind are termed "minimal pair". It is possible to take this process further, we can also produce can, ran, man, fan —it is a minimal set. The change of the vowel / &/ in ban provides us with another minimal set: bun, bone, Ben, burn, boon, born. The change of the final /n/ in ban will result in a third minimal set. bad, bat, back, badge, bang. To establish the phonemes of the language the phonologist tries to find pairs that show which sounds occur or do not occur in identical positions — commutation test.

The phonemes of a language form a system of oppositions - comparison of sounds along the lines of their qualitative and quantitative characteristics which results in singling out their minimal distinctive features, that are phonologically relevant or irrelevant One phoneme is usually opposed to any other phoneme in at least one position in at least one lexical or grammatical minimal or sub-minimal pair. If the substitution of one sound for another results in the change of meaning, the commuted sounds are different phonemes, speech sounds which are phonologically significant.

The opposition can be single, double or multiple, e.g_r /t/ and /d/ differ along the following lines:

/t/ /d/

voiceless fortis voiced lenis

Their other characteristic features are irrelevant, thus /t/ and /d/ have only one distinctively relevant feature — single opposition. We can prove that this opposition is really phonemic by the minimal pairs: ten — den, time — dime, try — dry. If there are two distinctively relevant features, the opposition is double, e.g. /p/ and /d/ differ along the following lines:

/p/ /d/

voiceless fortis voiced lenis

labial,bilabial lingual, forelingual,

apical, alveolar

This opposition is really phonemic. It can be proved by the minimal pairs, pie-die, pail-dale,

pry-dry.

The method of minimal pairs helps to establish the inventory of phonemes, and it is one of the two main problems of phonological analysis. So, 24 consonant phonemes are identified in the English language on the basis of such an analysis which demands a recourse to the meaning, or to the distinctive function of the phoneme.

4.Notation.

The number of sound types, or phonemes, in each language is much smaller than the number of sounds actually pronounced.

Language	Consonants	Vowels	Total	Language	Consonants	Vowels	Total
Russian English Ukrainian	36 24 47	6 20 6	42 44 53	German Abkhazian Finnish	22 68 13	18 3 8	40 71 21

It is known that the English alphabet consists of 26 letters: 6 – to denote vowels, 20 – consonants, while the phonemic system contains 20 vowel phonemes and 24 consonant ones. Thus, one letter in the English language represents several phonemes. It is due to the fact that in English the historical or traditional principle of orthography prevails.

Orthography was formed in early periods of the language development and nowadays it does not correspond to the present day sounding. The attempts of creating phonetic script both for teaching and research purpose date back to the 16^th century but it was in 1887 that the International Phonetic association adopted a special phonetic alphabet which was called “phonetic transcription” and based on the Latin alphabet.

Transcription – the system of signs in which sounds are symbolized. Transcription represents sounding speech. A phonemic, or linguistically broad, transcription is based on the principle “one symbol per phoneme”. The symbols of phonetic transcription are placed between slanting lines //. An allophonic or linguistically narrow transcription is based on the principle “one symbol per allophone”. The symbols of the allophonic transcription are usually placed between square brackets [ ].

International Phonetic Association (IPA) stated phonetic symbols for sounds of many existing languages. Writing transcription symbols one should use the form of print rather than handwriting. Do not use any capital letters. Do not confuse orthography and phonemic representation. It is not necessary to show any punctuation. Abbreviations and numbers should be transcribed in their full spoken form, e.g. USSR /’ju; ‘es ‘es ‘a;/. Note that the stress always falls on the last item.

Questions for self-control:

1. What levels of the linguistic analysis correspond to each part of Phonetics?

2. What is the final aim of the phonological analysis of a language?

3. What is the distributional method based on?

4. What is the semantic method based on?

5. Why and when was phonetic transcription adopted?