Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Key to symbols
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Segmental representations and their phonetic interpretation
- 3 Segmental and transformational phonology
- 4 Non-linear phonological representations in contemporary generative phonology
- 5 Phonological representations in Declarative Phonology
- 6 A declarative analysis of Japanese words
- 7 A declarative analysis of English words
- References
- Index
2 - Segmental representations and their phonetic interpretation
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of figures
- List of tables
- Preface and acknowledgements
- Key to symbols
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Segmental representations and their phonetic interpretation
- 3 Segmental and transformational phonology
- 4 Non-linear phonological representations in contemporary generative phonology
- 5 Phonological representations in Declarative Phonology
- 6 A declarative analysis of Japanese words
- 7 A declarative analysis of English words
- References
- Index
Summary
Fundamental to almost all research in phonetics is the concept of speech sound. It is the basic unit around which every textbook of phonetics has been organized from A. M. Bell's ‘Visible Speech’ of 1867 to Peter Ladefoged's ‘Course in Phonetics’ of 1975. In fact if the notion of speech sound were to be excluded from phonetic discourse – by decree of an all powerful dictator – work in the field would come to a virtual standstill.
(Halle and Stevens 1979)Most linguists would not know a systematic phonetic description if they saw one.
(Ladefoged 1977)Introduction
Since there is no general notation for phonological representations, theories of phonological representation are proposed and defended using theory-internal notations. Classical phonemic phonology used strings of lower-case romanic symbols for its notation, Firthian Prosodic Phonology used Greek and upper-case romanic symbols, with subscripts and superscripts. Transformational-generative phonology used two-dimensional matrices of distinctive features, and non-linear phonological theories make use of two-and three-dimensional graphical notations to portray phonological relations such as constituency, dependency and association.
Faced with two apparently different phonological representations from two different theories, it is not possible to determine by inspection alone whether they are notational variants which denote the same phonological object in different notations, or whether they denote different phonological objects. In order to understand how theories of phonological representation work, it is helpful to understand first how phonological notations work. In this chapter I shall examine phonological notation from a cross-theoretical perspective.
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- Chapter
- Information
- Phonological RepresentationsTheir Names, Forms and Powers, pp. 18 - 45Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1998