Active Organ of Speech and the Place of Articulation

The distinctive oppositions are:

(1) Labial vs. lingual

pain-can  fame-tame

(2) Lingual vs. pharyngeal (glottal)

Tim-him  foam-home

 

Manner of the Production of Noise

The distinctive oppositions are:

(1) Occlusive (stops) vs. constrictive

Pine-fine          came-lame       mine-thine

(2) Constrictive vs. occlusive – constrictive (affricates)

fare-chair         fail-jail

 

Within these groups (occlusive and constrictive) noise consonants may be opposed to sonorants.

a) occlusive: noise vs. nasal sonorants

b) constrictive: noise vs. sonorants

 

There are other oppositions:

c) constrictive unicentral vs. constrictive-bicentral

d) constrictive consonants with a flat narrowing vs. constrictive-bicentral with a round narrowing

 

Position of the Soft Palate

This principle of consonant classification provides the basis for the following distinctive oppositions.

Oral vs. nasal

pit-pin   seek-seen  thieves-theme

 

The method of minimal pairs helps to identify 24 consonants phonemes in the English language.

 

English Vowels as Units of the Phonological System.

Classificatory principles (listed in Lecture 3) provide the bases for the following distinctive oppositions in t he system of English vowel phonemes.

I. Position of the Lips

Rounded vs. unrounded

II. Position of the Tongue

(1) Horizontal movements of the tongue

a) front vs. mixed

b) back vs. mixed

 

(2) Vertical movements of the tongue

a) close (high) vs. mid-open (mid)

b) open (low) vs. mid-open (mid)

 

As is known, within each group which we single out according to the horizontal and vertical movements of the tongue there are sub-groups.

Front vowels are subdivided into fully front and front retracted: /i: e / are fully front, /I/ is front retracted. Its independent phonological status can be proved by the existence of minimal pairs.

Back vowels are also subdivided into filly back / u: a:/ and back advanced /u/. The independent phonological status of back-advanced vowels can be proved by the existence of pniminal pairs.

Close (or high), mid-open (or mid) as well as open (or low) vowels are subdivided into vowels of narrow and broad variation. Thus /i: u:/ belong to vowels of narrow variation, and /I, u/ belong to the vowels of broad variation. Their independent phonological status can be proved by the existence of such pairs as: Pete-pit pool-pull

Within the group of mid-open (or mid) vowel /e/ belong to the phonemes of narrow variation and // belongs to the subgroup of mid vowels of broad variation. The independent phonological status of these phonemes can be proved by the existence of such pairs as: pence-sixpence.

Open (or low) vowels are also subdivided into the phonemes of broad variation and of narrow variation. Their independent phonological status can be proved by the existence of minimal pairs: bord-bard.

 

III. Degree of Tenseness and the Character of the End of the Vowel

 

The distinctive oppositions here are:

- tense vs. lax

- checked vs. free

 

IV. Length

There are long and short vowels in English. But length is not the only distinctive feature of minimal pairs like Pete-pit, Bart-but. In other words, the difference between /i: - I/ etc. is not only quantitative but also qualitative, which is conditioned by different positions of the bulk of the tongue.

Qualitative difference is the main relevant feature that differentiates long and short vowel phoneme, because quantitative characteristics of long vowels depend on the position they occupy in a word:

a) they are the longest in the terminal position

b) they are shorter before voiced consonants

c) they are the shortest voiceless consonants

 

V. Stability of Articulation

This principle provides the basis for the following distinctive oppositions:

(1) Monophthongs vs. diphthongs

(2) Diphthongs vs. diphthongoids