Phonology is ... Phonology: definition, subject, tasks and fundamentals

Among a lot of linguistic disciplines, it is especially worth mentioning such a section as phonology. It is a science that studies the sound structure of a language, the realization of phonemes in it. Master this discipline in the first courses of specialties related to translation, teaching languages, especially Russian.

We will consider what phonology is, what its subject and tasks are, the structure of our language at this level. Also get acquainted with the main terminology of this section.

Definition

Let's begin our conversation with the definition itself.

Phonology is a section of modern linguistics that examines the sound structure of the language, the functioning of various sounds in its system and their characteristics.

It refers to theoretical linguistics. The basic language unit that science studies is the phoneme.

It originated in the 70-80s of the 19th century in Russia. Its founder - Ivan Alexandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay, a Russian scientist with Polish roots. In the 30s of the 20th century it was formed as an independent science. Today is one of the main philological disciplines and ranks first in the cycle of subjects of theoretical grammar of the language.

Subject and tasks

Like any other science, this section of linguistics has its own tasks and subject.

The object of phonology is the phoneme, which is the minimal linguistic unit. It is learned by phonologists. Inattentive students may consider that the subject is sound, but this is not so. In fact, they are studied by another discipline - phonetics.

The second issue that should be considered is the task. These include:

• Implementation in the language;
• Analysis of the essence;
• The establishment of relations between the phoneme and sound;
• Description of the phoneme system and their modifications;
• Description of the phonological system;
• The connection between the phoneme and other significant units of language - morphemes and word forms.

And this is not all the tasks of phonology. It is worth noting that the above listed priorities for all existing phonological schools.

Famous linguistic phonologists

As already noted above, Ivan Alexandrovich Baudouin de Courtenay became the founder of science. He developed its foundations, gave impetus to its further development.

No less famous is his pupil Nikolai Sergeyevich Trubetskoi, who wrote the famous "Foundations of Phonology". He significantly expanded the scientific apparatus of discipline, described the main classifications and concepts.

We worked in this section of linguistics and Roman Osipovich Yakobson, Lev Shcherba, Avram Noam Chomsky and many others.

A lot of scientific works are devoted to the problems of this section of linguistics. It should be noted the following articles and monographs, which will give an exhaustive picture of the development of science, its basic postulates:

• RI Avanesov, VN Sidorov published a monograph "The phoneme system of the Russian language" in due time.
• S. Bernstein's work "Basic Concepts of Phonology" is quite well known.
• J. Vahek, "Phonemes and phonological units".

Those who are interested in the history of the issue, useful book LR Zinder "Main phonological schools."

Note also the work:

• SV Kasevich, "Phonological Problems of General and Oriental Linguistics".
• TP Lomtem, "Phonology of the modern Russian language on the basis of set theory".
• VI Postovalov, "Phonology."

AA Reformersky is the author of three works in which the fundamentals of science are described in detail:

• "From the history of domestic phonology."
• "Essays on phonology, morphology and morphology."
• "Phonological etudes."

Phonological schools

Various linguistic schools dealt with phonology. The most famous works of scientists who were members of the Prague linguistic circle, which included N. Trubetskoi and R. Jakobson.

His vision was held by scientists from the Moscow Phonological School, to which A. Reformersky belonged. Representatives of this direction paid attention to the study of the identity of the phonemic shells.

Representatives of the Leningrad school, including the famous linguist L. Scherba, believed that science, on the contrary, should study their differences.

But regardless of the views, scientists adhere to a single terminology and definitions.

Terminology

As already mentioned, phonology is a science that studies phonemes. Like any other field of knowledge, it has its own terminological apparatus.

Its basic concepts include: phoneme, allophone, phoneme position, hyperphoneme, archiphoneme and others. Consider the main ones.

• Fonema is the minimum indivisible language unit. It serves to construct word forms and performs a meaning-determining function. It is realized with the help of sounds - backgrounds. It should be noted that it is quite abstracted from the specific sounds of speech.
• Allophone is the realization of a certain phoneme, depending on its phonetic environment.
• Hyperphoneme - phoneme, which combines the signs of two twin sounds.
• Archiphoneme is a phoneme having a set of signs of neutralizing phonemes.
• The position of the phoneme is its realization in speech. Constitutive and combinatorial positions stand out.
• The constitutional position is the realization of the phoneme depending on the place in the speech. For example, an unstressed or stressed syllable for vowels.

• Combinatorial position - implementation depending on the phonetic environment. For example, vowels in a position after hard or soft consonants have different characteristics.
• The strong position of the phoneme is the position in which it clearly manifests its properties.
• Weak (the second name is the neutralization position) is the position in which the phoneme does not perform a distinctive function.
• Neutralization - the coincidence of different phonemes in one allophone.
• Differential signs of phonemes are the signs by which they differ among themselves.

This is not a complete list of terms that phonology operates on. Linguistics in general also uses some of them in other sections - phonetics, grammar.

Phonological structure of the Russian language

Each language is distinguished by its phonological system. In Russian today 43 phonemes stand out. Of these, 6 are vowels and 37 are consonants.

In this case, each of them is characterized by the presence or absence of a certain set of characteristics.

Vowel phonemes have the following series of functional characteristics: the degree of ascent, where the upper, middle and lower rise, the absence or presence of labialization are distinguished.

Consonants have a more impressive range of characteristics. Here the following signs are noted, most of which are divided into pairs. So, phonemes are:

• Noisy or sonorous;
• Deaf or sonorous.

By the nature of education:

• Stoppers;
• Affricates;
• Slotted;
• Trembling;
• Labial;
• Dental;
• Palatine;
• Hard or soft.

These characteristics are well known to those who study the Russian language. Phonetics, phonology are the sciences that operate on this characteristic, and the students-philologists are obliged not only to memorize this set of characteristics, but also be able to apply them in practice, characterizing those or other phonemes depending on their position in the word.

Phonological transcription

Another definition, which operates this section of linguistics, is phonological transcription. This is also one of the required skills, which should be learned by the students-philologists. Phonological transcription is a recording of the transmission of the sounding of words by means of special conventional signs that reflect the phonemes used in words.

At the same time, only the main phoneme is fixed on paper, allophones are not indicated. For writing, both Cyrillic and Latin characters are used, as well as a number of diacritical marks.

conclusions

Phonology is one of the main sections of linguistics. This science studies the functioning of phonemes, minimal linguistic units. It has more than a century of history, its own terminological apparatus, tasks and subject of research.

Students-philologists study it in the first year of university, before acquaintance with phonetics or in parallel with it. Knowing the basics of this discipline in the future helps not only to understand the grammar, but also the rules of spelling and orthoepia.