The phonetic or phonological analysis is the division of an utterance into segmental and suprasegmental elements. There are several phonological analysis theories. Some of these important hypotheses are examined in more detail below.
(a)System and Structure:
One method is to think in terms of structure and system. The phonological units (Phonemes or sounds) of a language are grouped together to create the different systems, and the arrangements of these units in larger units such as syllables, foot, tone-group, and sentence establish the language's structure.
The units that comprise a system may be substituted by other units to generate other utterances, but the relationships between the various units present in an utterance create a structure. For example, the English word sack contains one syllable and is composed of three phonemes: /s/, /ae/, and /k/. The phoneme is
Other phones may be used in lieu of /s/. mes /b/, /p/, /t/d/, /h/, /l/ to return different words, pack, tack, jack, hack, lack All of these things that may be replaced by another in a framework are in paradigmatic connection and create a system.
Similarly, /ae/ is part of a system that includes the phonemes /i/, /i:/, /e/, and /ei/, which may be employed as substitutions to produce the words ill, seek, seek, sake, and so on. /k/ also forms a system with the letters /t/, /d/, /p/, and /m/.
They give us the words sat, sad, sap, sam, and sung
Units of phonological analysis:
The units of phonological analysis are organized in a hierarchy, with a higher rank unit consisting of a series of one or more occurrences of the next lower rank.
In English, for example, one or more phonemes constitute a syllable; one or more syllables constitute a foot (the unit of rhythm); one or more feet constitute a tone group (the unit of intonation), and one or more tone groups constitute a sentence. Here are some examples of these phonological units:
Phoneme | /k/, /b/, /t/, /d/, /i/, /e/, etc |
Syllable | back/bæk/ ago /əigou/ button /b^-tn,/ etc |
Foot | The cur/few tolls/the knell/of part/ing day/. Here we have five feet. (/A slanting bar/ represents a foot boundary) |
Tone group | // If the ‘bride a, grees // the ‘marriage is in’ January.//. (// represents tone group boundary; ‘represents rising tone, and ‘falling tone,’ accent (strong or stressed syllable.) |
Sentence | For example, the sentence given above has two-tone groups |
b)Analysis of Prosodic Events:
Another part of phonology is prosodic analysis. It is interested in phonological characteristics like aspiration, nasalization, labialization, retroflection, and palatalization. The prosodic analysis includes the examination of supra-segmental elements like stress, rhythm, intonation, and so on. The following are some examples of prosodic features:
Aspiration:
The English word clay /klei/ has an aspirated /k/ in the form of [kh], but the aspiration affects the following /l/ as well, causing it to devoice to [1o]. As a result, it may be characterized as /h/ prosody.
Nasalization
The nasal consonant following the vowel /i/ causes unintentional nasalization of the vowel /i/ in the English word sing /si/. In this kind of syllable, nasalization may therefore be characterized as prosody.
Lip-rounding
The English word quiet /kwait/ includes lip-rounding for /k/ as well as the following /w/. We have an example of /w/–– here prosody.
Palatalization
Under the effect of the following /i:/, the English word key /ki:/ has a palatal /k/ rather than a velar /k/. This is referred to as /i/–prosody.
Accent
The accent is defined as the emphasis on a certain syllable of a word. The English word ago/'gou/, for example, puts stress on the second syllable.
Prosodic qualities include sentence emphasis, rhythm, and intonation.
(c)Phonemics
Another method to phonology is phonemics, which states that the phonemes (the minimum characteristic sound-units) of a language are discovered by constructing minimal pairings (by replacement of one phoneme by another which can bring about a change of meaning).
In various situations, each phoneme may have somewhat varied phonetic realizations, known as allophones. Phonemics underpins the majority of phonological theories.
Some linguists limit the word 'phoneme' to segments of human sounds solely, analyzing suprasegmental or prosodic elements separately. The three most essential suprasegmental characteristics are
- length (syllables and feet),
- stress
- pitch
(d)Theory of Distinctive Characteristics
The phoneme (segment) is the smallest unit of phonology in the phoneme theory, however, the phonetic feature is the lowest unit of phonology in the Distinct Features Theory.
Segment theory and Language:
Language-wise, segment theory is inconvenient. There are no universal laws in any language that apply to all sounds. There are a set number of characteristics or components that constitute a fundamental storehouse from which each language picks phonetic elements and mixes them in various ways.
These characteristics are what distinguishes or separates one segment from another. That is why they are referred to as distinguishing characteristics.
In distinctive features theory (as opposed to notation transcription), the phonetic transcription is simplified and systematized by seeing each sound as a collection of components that are perfectly parallel to semantic components.
Acoustics and/or articulatory variables, as hypothesized by Chomsky, may be reduced to a minimal number of factors or phonetic qualities (twenty-seven with multi-values). According to this idea, a distinguishing characteristic component, such as the sounds /t/ and /k/ in the English word take.
In English, for example, the following phonetic characteristics stand out:
State of Glottis | Voiceless/voiced. |
Position of Soft Palate: | Oral/nasal. |
Place of Articulation | (a) bilabial/alveolar/velar
(b) labiodental/ dental/ alveolar / palato-alveolar |
Manner of Articulation | (a) plosive / fricative/ nasal (b) nasal/lateral
(c) affricate/fricative |
Part of Tongue Raised | front/back |
Height of Tongue | Close/between half-close and half-open/between half-open and open/open |
lip-position | unrounded/rounded |
Stress | stressed/unstressed |
Reduction | Reduced vowel/unreduced vowel. |
Tone | Falling/rising; low fall/high fall/low rise/high rise/fall rise: or primary/ secondary/ tertiary/ fall-rise. |