The Phonemes of English: A Phonemic Study of the Vowels and Consonants of Standard English

ISBN-13: 9789024706396 / Angielski / Miękka / 1971 / 130 str.

Antonie Cohen; A. Cohen

Opis

I gladly take this opportunity to convey my heartfelt thanks to those who have guided me on my way as an undergraduate and who have enabled me through their teachings and friendly advice to proceed to preparing for this doctorate thesis. I should like first of all to thank Prof. C. L. Wrenn, M. A., now of Pembroke College, Oxford, who has always been extremely helpful to me and who was generous enough to admit me to the Honours English Course at King's College, University of London. After moving to Oxford he still found time to show interest in my progress and on more than one occasion helped me with his wise counsels. I am also extremely grateful to his successor at King's College, Prof. G .. Bullough, M. A., who likewhise helped me whenever he could. I feel greatly indebted to Prof. D. Jones, M. A., Dr. Phil., who at the time was Professor of Phonetics at University College, London, and from whose lectures and methods of expression I greatly benefited. I am particularly thankful for the kindness shown to me by the staffs of the English department of King's College and of the Phonetics department of University College for the excellent tuition I received from them and for making me feel completely at home among my English fellow students. I am happy to acknowledge the generosity with which Prof. Dr. P. N. U.

Spis treści

I Introduction.- II Problems Connected with Phonemic Analysis.- 1. Fundamental Points.- a. Linguistics as an autonomous science.- b. Phonetics and Phonemics.- c. Diachronic v. synchronic method.- d. Structural relationship between sounds.- 2. Significant Function of Sounds.- a. The word as a basic unit.- b. Phonemes.- c. Commutation Test.- d. The significant function of place.- e. The problem of [h] and [n].- f. “Phoneticism”: mono- or biphonematic interpretation.- 3. Phonemes and their Interrelations.- a. Identification of the word form.- b. Pattern phenomena.- c. Are phonemes only opposing entities?.- d. Martinet’s conception of distinctive qualities.- e. Neutralization, archiphoneme.- 4. The Positive Factor in the Habitus of the Phoneme.- 5. Consonant and Vowel Phonemes.- a. How to distinghuish them.- b. How to classify them.- III The Consonant Phonemes of English.- A. Inventory.- 1. ‘Plosives’.- 2. ‘Affricates’.- a. Is [dz] one or two phonemes?.- b. Is [z] a phoneme of English?.- 3. ‘Nasals’ and ‘Laterals’.- a. The special nature of [n].- b. Clear and dark [l].- 4. ‘Fricatives’.- a. The special nature of [r].- b. The special nature of [h].- 5. ‘Semi-Vowels’.- B. Classification.- 1. Synchronic v. Diachronic Method.- 2. The Problem of Foreign Words.- 3. Initial Clusters.- a. The problem of |j|.- b. The interpretation of voiceless [ç].- c. The interpretation of voiceless [n].- d. Consonants appearing as first and second members.- e. Consonants appearing as first members only.- f. Consonants appearing as second members only.- g. Triphonematic clusters.- 4. Final Clusters.- a. Is the syllable a phonemic element in English?.- b. Biphonematic clusters.- c. Triphonematic clusters.- d. Quadriphonematic clusters.- 5. Medial Clusters.- 6. Corollary.- Position Table.- Table of Consonant Combinations:.- Initial clusters.- Final clusters.- IV The Vowel Phonemes of English.- 1 The so-called ‘Short’ of ‘Checked’ Vowels.- a. Is [e] a phoneme?.- b. Is [u] a phoneme?.- 2. Long versus Short.- a. Chroneme theory.- b. Are length differences relevant?.- c. Are ‘long’ and ‘short’ correlated?.- d. ‘Silbenschnitt’.- e. Other approaches.- 3. ‘Long’ Vowels.- 4. Diphthongs.- a. Some earlier interpretations.- b. [ei] and [ou].- c. [ai] and [au].- d. [ci].- e. [jui].- 5. ‘Centring Diphthongs’.- a. One or two phonemes?.- b. Phonemic transcription.- c. The problem of [e] and [r].- d. Triphthongs.- 6. Corollary.- Publications consulted.- Index of authors.- Word index.- Postscriptum.