Lection 3: Main Trends in the Phoneme Theory. Methods of Phonological Analysis

Methods of Phonological Analysis

Before we speak about methods of phonological analysis we should formulate why the phonological investigation is conducted, what the aim of phonological analysis is:

1) to establish distinctive difference between sounds, that is to establish relevant features;
2) to create the inventory of the phonemes and establish the phonemic system of a language.
Generally speaking, the final aim of the phonological analysis is the identification of the phonemes (1) and their classification (2).

There are two approaches to the phonological analysis:

1. Distributional approach was practiced by American linguists and focuses on the position of the sound in the word or its distribution.

2. Semantic method attaches special importance to meaning. It is widely used in Russia. The semantic analysis is performed through the system of phonological oppositions. It is based on the following fundamental phonological rule: Phonemes can distinguish the meaning when opposed to one another in the same phonetic context.

ship [ɪ] – sheep [iː], day [d] – they [ð]

So, to establish the phonemic status of the sound it is necessary to oppose one sound to some other in the same phonetic context. This procedure is called “commutation test”. We must find or establish the so-called minimal pairs. A minimal pair is a pair of words which differ in one sound only. So, we replace one sound by another and try to find out if the opposed sounds belong to the same or different phonemes. The commutation test may have three possible results:

#1. [pin] – [sin]

The meaning is different, so the opposed sounds [p/s] belong to different phonemes.

#2. [pin] – [p^hin]

The meaning is the same, so the opposed sounds belong to the same phoneme. Here the allophone is different, used wrongly.

#3. [p^hin] – [hin]

We have a meaningless word [hin], so we cannot make any conclusion about the phonemic status of the second sound. We can’t identify it.