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

1. Moscow School
It is represented by Аванесов, Кузнецов and Реформацкий. The fundamental idea of this school is the following: the phoneme is theminimal component of the morpheme, which is a minimal meaningful language unit. They claim that the phonemic content of the morpheme is constant. In establishing the phonemic status of sounds they base their analysis on the theory of strong and weak positions. The strong position for a vowel is the stressed position. For a consonant – before the stressed vowel. So, if we find the strong position, we can establish the phonemic status of the sound. Thus, in the word “activiry” the phoneme is [æ].


Advantages of the conception:
1) Phonetic changes are not separated from morphology. The unity between form and content is preserved. The phonetic aspect is not isolated from lexis and grammar.
2) It is quite convincing that the allophones of the same phoneme can show conciderable difference.


Disadvantages:
1) Sometimes it is impossible to find a strong position for a sound (словарные слова в русском языке, например: «молоко»).
2) Sometimes the difference between the sounds treated as allophones of the same phoneme is too big (рус. «ухо» - «уши»).


2. Leningrad School
It is represented by Щерба and Зинберг. The main idea is the following: the phonemic content of the morpheme is not constant. It can be changed. According to this conception, the initial sounds in “active” and “activity” belong to different phonemes.


Advantages: its simplicity.


Disadvantages:
1) It views phonology in isolation from morphology. The unity between form and content is destroyed.
2) It is difficult to establish the limits within which the allophones of the same phoneme may vary, e.g.: «мел» - «мель», different phonemes, the meaning is changed; “little” – [литль], the meaning is not changed.