1 MS. Trubetzkoy. Principles of Phonology. (Trans. C. A. Baltaxe). Univ. of California
Press, 1969, p. 52. All other quatations have been taken from this translation.
2 N.S. Trubetzkoy. Id., p. 62.
3 N.S. Trubetzkoy. Id., p. 66.
affricates /tj/, /d3/. The combinations of sounds which cannot be
determined by the rules are called phoneme clusters.
N.S. Trubetzkoy presented the classification of phonological
oppositions in terms of logic. Two things which have no features
in common cannot be contrasted, likewise two phonemes which
have no common features cannot be opposed. Firstly, oppositions
are classified in relation to the entire system of oppositions. Ac
cording to this principle oppositions may be unidimensional and
pluridimensional (or bilateral and multilateral). Two phonemes
possessing a common feature, which no other phoneme has, are in
unidimensional opposition. For example in English /t-d/, /p-b/, /k-
g/, /b-m/, /d-n/, /g-T|/ /f-v/, /s-z/, /s-j/, /z-3/, /t-tj/, /d-d3/, /r-1/ are
unidimensional (bilateral) oppositions.
Two phonemes, whose feature is common to some other
phoneme, are in pluridimensional (multilateral) opposition. For
example, the opposition /b - d/ in English is pluridimensional as
the common features of the members o f this opposition (plosive +
voiced + lenis are characteristic of the phoneme /g/.
According to N.S.Trubetzkoy the unidimensional opposi
tions are few er but more interesting than the others. Pairs of pho
nemes, having similar oppositions between them, are called
proportional oppositions. In English pairs of phonemes /p-b/, /t-
d/, /s-z/,
/1 -3 /, /0 - 5 /,
/tj-d3/, /f-v/, /k-g/ have similar oppositions in
which the distinctive feature is voiceless - voiced (resp. fortis -
lenis (tense — lax). These pairs of phonemes constitute propor
tional oppositions.
If there is no pair of phonemes in similar relation to the ex
isting pair of phonemes, such an opposition is called isolated. For
example, /г-L/ is an isolated opposition in English, Russian and
Uzbek.
Secondly, oppositions may be classified on the basis o f rela
tionship between their members. According to this principle they
may be private, gradual and equipollent.
If the member of opposition is differentiated from the other
by one distinctive feature such an opposition is called private. For
example, /d-t/, /f-v/ etc. Which differentiated by a voiced-
voiceless (resp. fortis-lenis) feature. The member of such an op
position, characterized by the presence of a feature, is called
marked and the member of opposition, which is characterized by
the absence of a feature, is called unmarked. Thus, a voiced mem
ber is marked (+) while an unvoiced member is unmarked (-).
Gradual oppositions are those whose members are character
ized by different gradations of one and the same feature. In English
/i:-a:/ according to the hights of the tongue they may be distin
guished as close-open where half-open and half close members
are omitted. Likewise /р-к/ is a gradual opposition, because, ac
cording to the place of articulation, /р/ is labial and /к/ is backlin-
gual, between which forelingual (alveolar, apical) and interlingual
/j/ members of opposition are omitted.
If both members of opposition have the same distinctive fea
tures except one, which is different, such an opposition is called
equipollent. In English /p-f/, /b-v/, /t-0/, /d~3/, /k-h/ are equipol
lent oppositions.
Thirdly, oppositions may be classified on the basis of dis
tinctive force and their occurrence in different positions according
to which oppositions may be neutralizable and constant. In par
ticular positions the feature o f one member of the opposition may
have a different distinctive force. As in Russian and in Uzbek
voiced members of the oppositions become unvoiced at the end of
words: пруд /прут/, teg/tek/ - tek/tek etc. The opposition where
the opposition is neutralized is called the position of neutraliza
tion.
N.S.Trubetzkoy stated that usually only unidimensional (bi
lateral) oppositions may be neutralized. In the position of neu
tralization one of the phonemes becomes the representative of an
archiphoneme. An archiphoneme is the sum of the relevant (dis
tinctive) features common to both members of the opposition. In
the above examples:
/ d / \
/t/ archiphoneme
/ t K
This unit may have different features in other languages.
The unidimensional, privative, proportional oppositions, the
members of which are in similar relations with each other, are
combined into correlation: /p-b/, /t-d/, /s-z/, /J-3/, /f-v/, /tj-d3/, /0-
б/, /k-g/. Such pairs of phonemes are called correlation pairs and
the feature voiced - voiceless (resp. Fortis - lenis) is called the
feature o f correlation.
Constant oppositions are those which are not neutralized in
some positions and always preserve their distinctive features. But
there may be cases when two phonemes are opposed in some po
sitions but not in others. For example, English /р/ and
1Ы
are not
opposed after
Isl,
because only one o f them can occur after /s/ as
in the word spin. Such types o f neutralization is called contextual
which appear in many languages. After N.S.Trubetzkoy’s defini
tion o f neutralization there were attempts to classify neutraliza
tions into several other types1.
N.S.Trubetzkoy advanced a valuable theory and methods
available in paradigmatic analysis o f phonemes i.e. in establishing
phonological and non-phonological oppositions. But there are
some shortcomings in his description o f syntagmatic relations o f
phonemes. N.S.Trubetzkoy’s theory was applied to the descrip
tion o f the phonemic system o f English by B.Tmka, J.Vachek2, by
V.A.Vassilyev3 and A.Cohen4.
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