Page 132 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes Some linguists restrict the use of the term ‘phoneme’ to segments of human sounds only, and analyse
what are called suprasegmental or prosodic features separately. The most important of the
suprasegmental features are: (1) length (syllables and feet), stress, and pitch. (These are discussed in
the next section of this chapter). Other linguists extend the use of the term ‘phoneme’ to cover all
distinctive sound features including levels of stress, levels of pitch, and types of juncture.
10.4.4 Distinctive Features Theory
In the phoneme theory, the phoneme (segment) is the smallest unit of phonology, but in the Distinct
Features Theory the phonetic feature is the smallest unit of phonology. Segment theory is linguistically
inconvenient. There are no rules in any language which apply to all the sounds. There are a fixed
number of features or components which form a basic stockpile from which every language selects
phonetic features and combines them in different ways. It is these features which keep a segment
distinct or separate from others. That is why they are called the distinctive features.
In distinctive features theory (as different from the notation transcription), the phonetic transcription
is simplified and systematized by regarding each sound a set of components, exactly parallel to
semantic component. As proposed by Roman Jakobson, Morris Halle, Chomsky, etc., acoustics and/
or articulatory variables can be reduced to a small number of parameters or phonetic features (twenty-
seven with multi-values). A distinctive features component, for example for the sounds /t/and /k/
as in the English word take according to this theory, may be as follows:

t k

+ consonantal + consonantal
– vocalic – vocalic
– voice – voice
+ plosive + aspirate
+ alveolar + plosive
+ aspirate .
+ tense .
. .
. .
. .

Dots [.] mean that the list is inexhaustive.
In English, for example, the following phonetic features are distinct:
1. State of Glottis: voiceless/voiced.
2. Position of Soft Palate: oral/nasal.
3. Place of Articulation: (a) bilabial/alveolar/velar; (b) labiodental/ dental/alveolar/palato-alveolar.
4. Manner of Articulation: (a) plosive/fricative/nasal; (b) nasal/lateral; (c) affricate/fricative.
5. Part of Tongue Raised: front/back.
6. Height of Tongue: Close/between half-close and half-open/between half-open and open/open.
7. lip-position: unrounded/rounded.
8. stressed/unstressed.
9. reduced vowel/unreduced vowel.

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