Critique on Distinctive Features

Andrew Ike B. Waga ENG 106 Dec. 14, 2011 2010-53632 Trubetzkoy, Jakobson or Chomsky, Whose typical Features be truly Distinct? Teacher, instructor, military service me, I harbour just been side swiped by a gondola car These were the exact words that came out from the mouth of the schools resident physician hooligan, Kevin, one afternoon after social class.During those times, our school has been intensively campaigning for any student to speak English at least while on campus, in preparation for the coming PAASCU (Philippine Accrediting Association of Schools, Colleges) visit, we were so prepped up that we were fifty-fifty speaking in English outside school just in case the Assessors are just loitering around, observing our teachers would say.So one afternoon, after determination non much to do, Kevin, decided he wanted to show his antics to us, adage that he is planning to pull off a prank on our schools English Coordinator, and our class adviser as well, we had a care fully laid out plan, he would be rushing from the street towards our school provide while we convince our teacher to approach the gate as well, and then he shouted, the exact words on quotation, overlook that he pronounced swiped as /s? ?pd/. Our teacher, knowing Kevins reputation, was already sensing that she was a bait to a good laugh, sedately yet in an authoritarian manner said, side swipe s? aIp/ Next time, Kevin, try pronouncing the words well, so as not to hurt your momentum, theres al shipway a next time with her hint smirk. I remembered this incident while reading about Natural classes, I am very sure that my teacher knew what Kevin meant, since all of us musical theme that Kevins pronunciation of that word was correct as far as we were concerned, until the jokes went back to Kevin. Growing up in a city that speaks Cebuano, it is needful for some English words to get that bisaya flavour, like the occasional /p/ becomes an /f/ or the letter h is pronounced as /? ? / and some(prenominal) to a greater extent, but nevertheless, besides deviating from what we know as a standard for American English, we pretty much understood each other despite the glitches. And so I thought, why was it necessary to dwell on the distinctive gets of honests when the of import importance has been served, comprehension. But then, I had to understand that it is necessary so that I would know just how these sounds are related to be viewed as about interchangeable, just how similar was similar? Hence, we go to the distinctive features of sounds.In dealing with classifiable features, I focused first on the work of Trubetzkoy, most hatful would start with Jakobson before Trubetzkoy but I cut that it was Trubetzkoy who first saw Phonetics and Phonology as separate disciplines. He mentioned that form (contrast, agreement patterning) essential be studied separately from substance (acoustics, articulation). Hence, there was a ampleer concentration on sounds first bef ore they are seen as words. It was Trubetzkoy who introduced the whim of oppositions in Phonology which he mentioned in his primary work, GrundzUge der phonologie(1939).Oppositions would refer to a pair or fixed of sounds sharing the same feature that is not tractd with any other sounds. Here are some of Trubetzkoys Oppositions 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 stenosis 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 asbinaryfeat ures which a sound either possesses or lacks. Voicing is much(prenominal) a feature. A sound is voiced or NOT voiced. The sound which possesses that feature is said to bemarked(eg+voice) whilst the sound lacking the feature isunmarked(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/? ,e,? /which are distinguished only by their height. In this system height would be a one feature with two or more degrees of height. As of present times, when Chomsky and Halles set of Distinctive features are accessible to us, this would seem very broad and general, hence, not really ingleside into more specific details. But this jumpstarted the notion that sounds share similar qualities and it is of the essence(p) for the development of his friend, Jakobsons own Distinctive Feature Theory.Jakobson is known as the first one to formalize the Distinctive Feature Theory. He followed the findings of Trubetzkoy as one of his basis for building up his set of distinctive features. Jakobsons original formulation of the Distinctive Feature Theory aside from Trubetzkoy was ground on the ff. Ideas (1) All features are BINARY. Sounds are either +voice or -voice (2) A small set of features is able to differentiate between the phonemes of any single language. (3) Distinctive features may be defined in terms of articulative or acoustic features.Here is a table showing Jakobsons Distinctive Features Though, the advantage of Jakobsons set is that it also has an acoustic description, I do think that the articulatory description is sufficient enough, since after articulating the sound we go through the sound we produced ourselves and yet not at all times would quite a little share the same acoustic descriptions to their produced sound, because we all have our own ways of pronouncing sounds, hence, I think that the acoustic description should be left for the speaker system to describe and not defined by Jakobsons description.Jakobsons composition was a good starting point for Chomsky and Halles own set of distinctive features. With Jakobsons Distinctive features serving as a full term a quo for Chomsky and Halle, they were able to refine Jakobsons set of features. A great achievement done by this duo is that they were able to establish the supposition of Natural Classes. The aim is to carefully choose distinctive features to form a natural class of phonemes. An advantage of this approach is seen in writing phonologic rules hence, we get to understand why we can still comprehend to some words though they are mispronounced.Another is that if we are to choose the features well, it should be practical to refer to natural classes of phonemes with a smaller number of features, therefore allowing a more refined set of characteristics to describe the phonemes involved in a natural class. Chomsky and Halle also introduced the feature classifications such as the major class features, the manner features and the place features thus paving the way for a more organise description in giving characteristics of phonemes.Chomsky and Halle was able to answer the concerns of diffuseness when giving features, which is install in Generative Phonology, a component of productive grammar that assigns the correct phonetic representations toutterancesin such a way as to reflect a native speakers internalized grammar. Given the actual situation, I would have to choose Chomsky and Halles Theory of Distinctive Features as the most functional, because it is able to give more specific descriptions as compared to Trubetzkoy and Jakobson.Since we have established that Chomsky and Halles set gives the most detailed, comprehensive and most organized distinctive features, it would be best to follow their findings. But It is also definitive to note that without the ideas of Trubetzkoy and Jakobson in the Distinctive Feature possibleness, Chomsky and Halles own theory would not be as it is today, not able to answer loopholes and deficiencies found in the previous studies. So for me, it is like a ladder, one has to go through the intial steps first before reaching your destination, because as what my teacher would have said, so as not to lose your momentum. Bibliography