The English Phonemic System.

Date: 2015-10-07; view: 359.

Lecture 4.

THE SYSTEM OF ENGLISH PHONEMES.

1. The English Phonemic System.
2. Paradigmatic and syntagmatic approaches as the principle aspects of phonological system.
3. Synchronic, diachronic and socio-linguistic factors in phonological system.
4. The phonetic structure of a language.

According to the definition of the Prague school of linguists the phonemic system is a set of distinctive differences between the acoustic articulatory complexes of a given language. It is a sum total of phonological oppositions.

This definition is based on the concept of language as a whole, and it includes all the three aspects from which we regard the segments of the sound side of the language: acoustic, that is physical distinctions, are combined here with the articulatory, that is physiological peculiarities of the sound of speech. At the same time the most important category of phonology is reflected here as well: the phonological system is the sum total of phonological oppositions. And we have dealt with the problem already while defining phonemes of the language (functional).

Any system will work properly if it is closely connected with reality.

And in case of phonological oppositions there must be a very close contact with reality of linguistic communication, of actual sounds. In other words, the idealistic abstract paradigmatic approach to the language phenomena should not carry us away from the close observation of the reality, the sound matter in question and its multitudinous variations.