Page 228 - DENG504_LINGUISTICS

Linguistics

Notes English, on the other hand, has to be able to distinguish dental from labiodental and alveolar places
of articulation, for θ to be distinct from f, s and for ð to be distinct from v, z. This requires an additional
feature that most languages do not make use of, and learning this could be seen as a specific task for
the learner of English. Distinctive feature phonologists have also claimed that when children are
learning their first language, they acquire features rather than individual phonemes.
Self-Assessment

1. Answer the following questions:
(i) On the diagram provided, various articulators are indicated by labelled arrows (a-e). Given
the name for the articulators.
(b) (d)

(a)

(c)
(e)

(ii) Using the descriptive labels introduced for vowel classification, say what the following
cardinal vowels are:
(a)[u] (b)[e] (c)[a] (d)[i]
(e)[o]
(iii) Draw a vowel quadrilateral and indicate on it the correct places for the following English
vowels:
(a) æ (b) Λ (c) w (d)e
(iv) Write the symbols for the vowels in the following words:
(a) bread (b) rough (c) foot (d) hymn
(e) pull (f) cough (g) mat (h) friend
16.9 Summary

• This unit is intended to show that there are many ways of analysing the English phonemic
system, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. We need to consider the practical
goal of teaching or learning about English pronunciation, and for this purpose a very abstract
analysis would be unsuitable. This is one criterion for judging the value of an analysis; unless
one believes in carrying out phonological analysis for purely aesthetic reasons, the only other
important criterion is whether the analysis is likely to correspond to the representation of sounds
in the human brain. Linguistic theory is preoccupied with economy, elegance and simplicity,
but cognitive psychology and neuropsychology show us that the brain often uses many different
pathways to the same goal.
• The analysis of ∫t , d is discussed in Cruttenden. The “double vowel” interpretation of English
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long vowels was put forward by MacCarthy and is used by Kreidler. The “vowel-plus-
semivowel” interpretation of long vowels and diphthongs was almost universally accepted by
American (and some British) writers from the 1940s to the 1960s, and still pervades contemporary
American descriptions. It has the advantage of being economical on phonemes and very “neat
and tidy”. The analysis in this form is presented in Trager and Smith. In generative phonology
it is claimed that, at the abstract level, English vowels are simply tense or lax. If they are lax
they are realised as short vowels, if tense as diphthongs (this category includes what I have

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