Phonology

The phoneme theory in America was headed by Edward Sepir and Leonard Bloomfield. It is characterized as structuralism. An American structuralism is based on behaviourism. The linguistic processes of the mind are unobservable. Our only information about the mind is derived from the behavior of the individual whom it inhabits. Another representative of this trend asserts : “Pattern is habit, structure is behavior, pattern is langue, structure is parole, pattern is culture, structure is behavioral manifestation of culture”. Leonard Bloomfiled defines the phoneme as minimum unit of distinctive sound-feature, but W.F. Twaddell defines it as an abstractional fiction. According to Ch.F. Hockett, language may be compared to any system of codes, such as the Morse code or transmission of messages by means of waving flags. These notions are characteristic of the Coperhagen school. The American structuralists are frequently alluded to as “descriptivists”, because their treatment of phonetics is synchronic and descriptive. All the phenomena of language are analysed in their present condition without any connection with the history of the language.

• The phoneme theory in America was headed by Edward Sepir and Leonard Bloomfield. It is characterized as structuralism. An American structuralism is based on behaviourism. The linguistic processes of the mind are unobservable. Our only information about the mind is derived from the behavior of the individual whom it inhabits. Another representative of this trend asserts : “Pattern is habit, structure is behavior, pattern is langue, structure is parole, pattern is culture, structure is behavioral manifestation of culture”. Leonard Bloomfiled defines the phoneme as minimum unit of distinctive sound-feature, but W.F. Twaddell defines it as an abstractional fiction. According to Ch.F. Hockett, language may be compared to any system of codes, such as the Morse code or transmission of messages by means of waving flags. These notions are characteristic of the Coperhagen school. The American structuralists are frequently alluded to as “descriptivists”, because their treatment of phonetics is synchronic and descriptive. All the phenomena of language are analysed in their present condition without any connection with the history of the language.