Chapter 10 English PhonologyARTICULATORY PHONETICS larlier in this book, I treated English word structure in some detail, and then went on to treat sentence structure in con- siderable detail. A visitor from another planet, unfamiliar with human languages, might get the impression from this book that a human language like English is a purely abstract sym- bolic system with no necessary relation to any particular medium of per- ception—that it might just as easily be coded into visual symbols, tactile symbols, aural symbols, or even symbols which appeal to the sense of taste or smell. But the simple fact is that English and all human languages have a primary and necessary dependence on sound as their basic per- ceivable medium for transmitting messages coded according to principles of morphology and syntax. There is no human language that is not spoken. While many are also written, some are not. So only sound, which appeals to the sense of hearing, is a necessary communication medium. When we want to know whether someone can communicate in the sys- tem we call English, we do not ask, “Do you possess linguistic compe- tence in English?” Nor do we ask, “Can you structure morphemes into syntactic sequences according to the principles of English?” Nor do we even ask, “Do you write English?” Rather, we ask, “Do you speak En- glish?” An adequate account of the English language must say something about the sounds which somehow are able to convey the messages struc- tured in accord with the principles of morphology, syntax, and semantics discussed earlier in this book. 218ENGLISH PHONOLOGY I have not totally ignored the sounds of English in my earlier discus- sions. In chapter 1, I briefly outlined American structuralist approaches to English sounds. But in chapter 2, I sought to emphasize that, while sound is indeed meaningful in English, the meaningful units are-not the sounds themselves but abstract categories called morphemes, which can group a variety of sounds into one unit of communication. In this chap- ter, I shall first discuss the sounds of English in a rudimentary way and then show how a rigorous accounting of the sound system of English (its phonology). can be coherently related to what I have said about its morphology and syntax. 7 When we speak of the sounds of a language, what do we mean? Can language sounds be produced by a musical instrument such as a trumpet or a drum? Can they be produced by banging a stick on a stone? No. They are a special class of sounds: they must be sounds which are produc- ible by the human body. But is any sound producible by the human body a sound of language? If you clap your hands, or snap your fingers, or stomp your foot, are you producing a language sound? No. To be part of the phonology of a language, a sound must be producible by specific parts of the body. These are called the organs of speech. And while machines such as. phonographs can imitate or reproduce the language sounds, this does not change the definition of such sounds. Machines can be built to produce a variety of sounds, but unless the sounds corre- spond to sounds the organs of speech can produce, they are not lan- guage sounds. Figure 10.1, on page 220, is a diagram of a portion of ‘the human anatomy with some of the organs of speech labeled. It is a side view of a human head, neck, and upper chest. Examine the diagram and the labels. After you have done so, we will examine the functions of the var- ious labeled parts in the production of human language sounds. All the organs of speech shown in figure 10.1 have primary bodily functions entirely independent of language. The lungs are for breathing; the teeth, lips, and tongue for eating. The nose filters air and makes it possible to breath with the mouth closed. The lips close the mouth. Even the vocal cords have a primary function other than their language function: when these two separable membranes in the throat.are closed tightly, they can trap air in the lungs, which is necessary when a human performs a highly strenuous task such as lifting a heavy load. The various organs were apparently adapted by our distant ancestors to the additional function of producing language sounds because the additional function did not interfere substantially with their basic functions: we can, for in- stance, breath and talk at the same time—though it is difficult to eat and talk at the same time. 219