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Schools of Linguistics Thought First Linguistics Lecture Schools of Linguistics Thought The Prague Linguistics Circle Prague Linguisitc Circle A group of linguists belonging to the Linguistic Circle of Prague founded in 1926. It has been considerably influential in the development of distinctive feature analysis. Roman Jackobson He was very much influenced bu trubeskoy work as they worked collaboratively along with other active memebrs of the Prague school. His ideas began to diverge in significant ways from those of his memebrs after the death of Trubetzkoy in the late 30s. “Observations sur le classement phonologique des consonnes” the article he wrote in French and presented to the Third International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in 1938 in Ghent, Jakobson made a most far- reaching breakthrough as he declared that” Basic tenet of the Article “[n]ous identifions les phonèmes d’une langue donnée en les décomposant en leurs caractères phonologiques constitutifs, c’est- à-dire que nous établissons pour chaque phonème quelles qualités l’opposent aux autres phonèmes du système en question English Translation (We identify the phonemes of a given language by decomposing them into their constituent phonological characters, that is, we establish for each phoneme the qualities it opposes to the other phonemes of the system in question.) Significance of the Article Published in 1939 in the Proceedings of the Congress, this article is frequently regarded as the debut of the second epoch of his phonological theory, since the previously marginal issue of “sub-phonemic entities” started to be paid serious attention. A Praguian Insider Note on Distinctive Feature Analysis According to Josef Vachek (1909-1996), the insider who later wrote a history of the Circle, “the fact that the phoneme is divisible into simultaneous elements (whether one calls them phonological units or relevant phonic qualities or distinctive features) was accepted unanimously in the Prague group of the mid-thirty” Phoneme is a breakable divisible Unit Jackobson defines it as (set of sound features, that distinguishes in a language one sound from the others) Phoneme Chalker and Weiner Broad Definition: A speech sound that contrasts meaningfully with other speech sounds in a language A Narrower, All Encompassing Definition It is either the smallest meaningful phonological unit or a bundle of distinctive features. Distinctive Feature Definition The characteristic of a speech sound within the phonology of the language that distinguishes it from other speech sounds. Nikolai Trubetzkoy (1939) Nikolai Trubetzkoy was a core member of the Prague school of linguistics which was highly influential in developing some areas of linguistic theory (including phonology), particularly in the 1930s. His most influential work was published posthumously in 1939, shortly after his death. One aspect of Trubetzkoy's work examines the idea of different types of "oppositions" in phonology. These oppositions are based on phonetic (or phonological) features. a) Bilateral oppositions A bilateral opposition refers to a pair sounds that share a set of features which no other sound shares fully. For example, voiceless labial obstruents = /p,f/. Note that obstruents are defined as having a degree of stricture greater than that of approximants (that is, stops and fricatives). b) Multilateral oppositions A group of more than 2 sounds which share common features. For example, labial obstruents, /p,b,f,v/, are both labial and obstruents, so they share two features. c) Privative (Binary) Oppositions One member of a pair of sounds possesses a mark, or feature, which the other lacks. Such features are also known as binary features which a sound either possesses or lacks. Voicing is such a feature. A sound is voiced or NOT voiced. The sound which possesses that feature is said to be marked (eg [+voice]) whilst the sound lacking the feature is unmarked (eg. [-voice]). d) Gradual Oppositions The members of a class of sounds possess different degrees or gradations of a feature or property. For example, the three short front unrounded vowels in English /ɪ, e, æ/ which are distinguished only by their height. In this system height would be a single feature with two or more degrees of height. 3. Roman Jakobson et al. (1941- 1956) Roman Jakobson was also a member of the Prague school of linguistics anworked closely with Trubetzkoy. Distinctive feature theory, based on his own work and the work of Trubetzkoy, was first formalised by Roman Jakobson in 1941 and remains one of the most significant contributions to phonology. Briefly, Jakobson's original formulation of distinctive feature theory was based on the following ideas: Distinctive Features 1. All features are privative (ie. binary). This means that a phoneme either has the feature eg. [+VOICE] or it doesn't have the feature eg. [-VOICE] 2. There is a difference between PHONETIC and PHONOLOGICAL FEATURES o Distinctive Features are Phonological Features. o Phonetics Features are surface realisations of underlying Phonological Features. Distinctive Features 3. A small set of features is able to differentiate between the phonemes of any single language 4. Distinctive features may be defined in terms of articulatory or acoustic features, but Jakobson's features are primarily based on acoustic descriptions.
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