PHONOLOGY

The three areas of phonetics have universal application. PHONETICS is the study of all the speech sounds that the human voice is capable of creating. It deals with how speech sounds are actually made, transmitted and received. PHONOLOGY, on the other hand, deals specifically with the sound systems of individual languages. English phonology is the study and description of the sounds and suprasegmentals that are used in the English language. Phonology is, in effect, a sub-category of phonetics. While phonetics studies all possible speech sounds, phonology studies only those contrasts in sound (the phonemes) which make differences of meaning within language. E.g. one person may pronounce /s/ in a noticeably ‘slushy’ manner, while another may pronounce it in a ‘lisping’ manner. A phonetician will be interested in describing exactly what these differences of articulation are. A phonologist, however, would point out that both articulations are ‘types of /s/’: e.g. /sei/, no matter how the /s/ varies, continues to contrast with /bei/, /mei/ and other words. There is only one basic unit, or phoneme (phoneme /s/), involved. When we talk about the ‘sound ‘system’ of English, we are referring to the number of phonemes which are used in a language, and to how they are organized. To say there are ’20 vowels’ in a particular accent means that there are 20 units which can differentiate word meanings: /e/ is different from /i:/, for example, because there are pairs of words, such as /set/ and /si:t/ which can be distinguished solely by replacing one of these vowels by the other.

To help separate the two ways of looking at pronunciation, different kinds of brackets are used. Square brackets - [ ] - are used when sounds are being discussed from a phonetic point of view, that is, purely as sounds, with articulatory details. Their role in the sound system of the language is disregarded. Slant brackets - / /- are used when sounds are viewed phonologically, i.e. as part of the sound system. No articulatory details are given.

Phonology studies how phonemes function in language and relationships among the different phonemes, it studies the combinatory possibilities of the phonemes, the nature and use of suprasegmentals such as intonation, stress, pauses, etc. For example, basic function of pitch variations may be different. We can say NO with different varieties of pitch: rise, fall, or a combination of these, so as to express doubt, assertiveness, apathy, etc, nevertheless, the word remains the same basic negative. In the national language of China, however, the pitch pattern is the property of the word, which is not identifiable without it. Four different words pronounced like English MA are only distinguished by their patterns of pitch. MA with high level pitch means MOTHER, with a rise from mid to high – HEMP, with a rise from low to medium – HORSE, and a fall from high to low gives SCOLD. In Chinese then, pitch is an essential part of th eshape of the word. It is distinctive in the same way as stress is distinctive in the two forms of INCENSE. ‘INCENSE means “льстить, курить фимиам». IN’CENSE - «приводить в ярость». Thus, in the two languages pitch has two different functions. Such differences are the province of phonology.

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