Chapter 1 the main directions in the study of sound

Distinctive features for English consonants:

1. 
   place of articulation;
   
2. 
   manner of articulation;
   
3. 
   absence/ presence of voice
   

Distinctive features for English vowels:

1. 
   the vowel quality: [sit] – [si:t]
   

monothong dipthongoid
(front-retractive) (front)
Phonetic and Phonological Mistakes:
If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by an allophone of a different phoneme – the mistake is phonological.
If an allophone of some phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme – the mistake is called phonetic.
The phoneme is a unity of 3 aspects: material, abstract and function.
Transcription and phonetic notations.
Transcription is a set of symbols which represents sounds in written form.
There is an organization called IPA (International Phonetic Assosiation), and it worked out the system of symbols universal internationally: International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).
There are 2 types of transcription: broad and narrow.
The broad variant is (called) phonemic and provides symbols for the phonemes. It’s used in teaching.
The narrow variant is (called) allophonic and provides symbols for the allophones, mainly used in phonetic research: [p^h] – aspiration, seemed – [d^o] partly devoiced.
There are 2 types of broad transcription: by D.Jones and by Vasiliev.
By D.Jones: uses the same symbols for short and long vowels (he focused on the length, but it’s a non-distinctive feature).
By Vasiliev: uses special symbols for all vowel phonemes.
2.3.Phonemes and allophones.Types of allophones.
Phonemes and allophones are both units of sound in a language, but they have different functions in the sound system.
A phoneme is the smallest unit of sound in a language that can distinguish meaning between words. It is an abstract unit that is represented by a set of features that distinguish it from other phonemes in the language. For example, in English, the phonemes /p/ and /b/ are distinct phonemes because they distinguish meaning between words like "pat" and "bat." A change in a phoneme can change the meaning of a word.
An allophone, on the other hand, is a variant of a phoneme that occurs in a particular phonetic context. It is a concrete unit of sound that is produced differently but does not change the meaning of a word. For example, in English, the phoneme /p/ has two allophones: aspirated [pʰ] and unaspirated [p]. The aspirated [pʰ] occurs at the beginning of stressed syllables, as in "pat," while the unaspirated [p] occurs after the /s/ sound, as in "spat." Both sounds are variants of the same phoneme /p/ and do not change the meaning of the words.
The distinction between phonemes and allophones is important in phonology because it helps to explain how different sounds are used in a language. The phoneme is the abstract unit that represents the mental representation of sound contrasts in a language, while allophones are the concrete realizations of those phonemes in specific contexts. By analyzing the distribution of phonemes and their allophones, linguists can gain a better understanding of the sound system of a language and how it is used to convey meaning.
There are different types of allophones that can occur in a language, including:
1.Free variation allophones: These are allophones that can occur in any context without changing the meaning of the word. For example, in English, the /t/ sound in the word "water" can be pronounced with or without a glottal stop, and both pronunciations are considered acceptable.
2.Complementary distribution allophones: These are allophones that occur in specific phonetic contexts and never in the same context as another allophone of the same phoneme. For example, in English, the sound is aspirated at the beginning of stressed syllables, but it is unaspirated after the /s/ sound. These two allophones are in complementary distribution because they never occur in the same context.
3.Morphophonemic allophones: These are allophones that are used to express morphological or grammatical distinctions. For example, in English, the plural marker "-s" can be pronounced as [s], [z], or [ɪz], depending on the final sound of the preceding word. These different pronunciations are morphophonemic allophones because they indicate different grammatical forms.
4.Assimilatory allophones: These are allophones that are influenced by the surrounding sounds. For example, in English, the /n/ sound in the word "incomplete" is pronounced as [ŋ] before the /k/ sound, as in "incomplete." This is an assimilatory allophone because it is influenced by the following sound.
5.Phonetic variability allophones: These are allophones that are influenced by individual speech habits or speaking styles. For example, the pronunciation of the vowel in the word "cot" may vary slightly between speakers or depending on the speaking style, but it does not change the meaning of the word. These are considered phonetic variability allophones.
These different types of allophones show how the pronunciation of sounds in a language can vary depending on different factors, including phonetic context, morphology, and individual speech habits.
Let us consider the English phoneme [d]. It is occlusive, forelingual, apical, alveolar, lenis consonant. This is how it sounds in isolation or in such words as door, darn, down, etc, when it retains its typical articulatory characteristics. In this case the consonant [d] is called principal allophone. The allophones which do not undergo any distinguishable changes in speech are called principal.
Allophones that occur under influence of the neighboring sounds in different phonetic situations are called subsidiary, e.g.:
a. deal, did - it is slightly palatalized before front vowels
b. bad pain, bedtime - it is pronounced without any plosion
с. sudden, admit - it is pronounced with nasal plosion before [n], [m]
d. dry - it becomes post-alveolar followed by [r].
If we consider the production of the allophones of the phoneme above we will find out that they possess three articulatory features in common - all of them are forelingual lenis stops. Consequently, though allophones of the same phoneme possess similar articulatory features they may frequently show considerable phonetic differences.
Native speakers do not observe the difference between the allophones of the same phoneme. At the same time they realize that allophones of each phoneme possess a bundle of distinctive features that makes this phoneme functionally different from all other phonemes of the language. This functionally relevant bundle is called the invariant of the phoneme. All the allophones of the phoneme [d] instance, are occlusive, forelingual, lenis. If occlusive articulation is changed for constrictive one [d] will be replaced by [z]: e. g. breed - breeze, deal — zeal, the articulatory features which form the invariant of the phoneme are called distinctive or relevant.
To extract relevant features of the phoneme we have to oppose it to some other phoneme in the phonetic context.
If the opposed sounds differ in one articulatory feature and this difference brings about changes in the meaning this feature is called relevant: for example, port — court, [p] and [k] are consonants, occlusive, fortis; the only difference being that [p] is labial and [t] is lingual.
The articulatory features which do not serve to distinguish meaning are called non-distinctive, irrelevant or redundant. For example, it is impossible to oppose an aspirated [p^h] to a non-aspirated one in the same phonetic context to distinguish meaning.
We know that anyone who studies a foreign language makes mistakes in the articulation of sounds. L.V. Shcherba classifies the pronunciation errors as phonological and phonetic. If an allophone is replaced by an allophone of a different phoneme the mistake is called phonological. If an allophone of the phoneme is replaced by another allophone of the same phoneme the mistake is called phonetic.
The first sound in these words are usually aspirated, but as English does not contrast aspirated vs unaspirated plosives (phonemically) the difference is not annotated in a phonemic transcription.