The NonUniqueness of Phonemic Solutions of Phonetic Systems

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The Non-Uniqueness of Phonemic Solutions of
Phonetic Systems

• by Yuen-Ren Chao

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I. Definitions of a Phoneme

• Palmer devides phones into
• monophones (phones that are similar in point of
  production and of acoustic effect ? must be
  regarded as minimal unit of pronunciation
• metaphones (two or more phones which serve
  jointly as units of meaning within the limits of
  a given linguistic community).

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I. Definitions of a Phoneme

• Metaphones are subdivided into
• Contactual phonemes
• Free phonemes
• Dynamophones
• Diaphones
• Phonogenes

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I. Definitions of a Phoneme

• Jones defines a phoneme as a family of sounds in
  a given language which are related in character
  and are such that no one of them ever occurs in
  the same surroundings as any other in words.
• His concept of a phoneme includes Palmers
  contactual phoneme plus parts of his diaphones.

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I. Definitions of a Phoneme

• Bloomfield defines a phoneme as minimum unit of
  destinctive sound-feature.
• He makes no differences between quality
  conditioned by length ? he includes Palmers
  dynamophones, but neglects the existence of
  variphones.
• Palmer and Jones focus on different sounds,
  whereas Bloomfield leaves non-significant
  features unspecified .

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Basic assumptions for every definition

• The total number of phonemes for one language is
  finite.
• There can be various groupings of sounds into
  phonemes within one language.
• The word sound can be unspecified in regard to
  size and kind .
• Phonemes are usually classes of sounds, which can
  differ in a certain way.
• There is a definite form of transcription for
  every word, if each phoneme has its definite
  symbol.
• Phonemic transcriptions can be pronounced without
  a grammatical or lexical context.
• The same sound can belong to more than one class.

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II. Factors which Influence the Phonemic
Solutions of phonetic Systems

• Size of Unit in Time
• The Grouping of Sounds into Phonemes
• Choice of Symbols

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Size of Unit in Time

• Under-analysis
• one phoneme, one symbol
• ? diphthongs, affricates, aspirates etc. can be
  considered as one phoneme represented by one
  symbol
• Over-analysis
• one phoneme, two/three symbols
• ? certain aspects of a sound may be represented
  by a single symbol

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Size of Unit in Time

• Zero symbols
• Some element of a symbol is understood, but not
  explicitly represented.
• Zero sounds
• Sounds with valid value are represented by a
  symbol for a phoneme.