Methods of the identification of phonemes in a language

The first problem of phonological analysis is to establish the phonemes in a definite language. This can be carried out only by phonological analysis based on phonological rules. There are two methods to do that: the distri­butional method and the semantic method.

The distributional method is based on the phonological rule that different phonemes can freely occur in one and the same position, while allo­phones of one and the same phoneme occur in different positions and, there­fore, cannot be phonologically opposed to each other. For example, as /р/ and /b/ can freely occur in the same phonetic context (as in "pea" — "bee", "rope" — "robe"), they are consequently different phonemes. But one cannot find [p] aspirated and [p] non—aspirated in the same phonetic position in English. Therefore in English they are allophones of one and the same phoneme.

The s e m a n t i с method, in its turn, is based on the phonological rule that a phoneme can distinguish words when opposed to another phoneme or zero in an identical phonetic position.

The opposition /z/ versus /t/ is called a phonological opposi­tion. The opposition /z/ versus /—/ is called a zero (phonological) oppo­sition. The pairs of words which differ only in one speech sound are called minimal pairs.

The semantic method of identification of the phonemes in a language attaches great significance to meaning. The investigator studies the function of sounds by collecting minimal pairs of words in the language. If two speech sounds distinguish words with different meanings, they form a phonological opposition and are realizations of two different phonemes. If not, they are al­lophones of one and the same phoneme. Thus, it is clearly evident that in English [s] and [t] are realizations of two different phonemes ("sea"—"tea", "so"—"toe"), while [t] aspirated and [t] non—aspirated are allophones of one and the same phoneme, as they cannot distinguish words. Such analysis is sometimes referred to as "minimal pair test".

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