4 - Consonants (3): distribution

Summary

In this chapter …

In this chapter we look at material that allows us to conceptualise the formal differences between phonology and phonetics. One construct that allows us to think about that difference quite precisely is that of the allophone. Allophones are parts of the ‘events’ of speech: they are manifestations of the underlying system. Moreover, allophones occur in predictable environments and therefore have places within syllables reserved exclusively for them. We shall sum up this exclusivity by claiming that allophones occur in complementary distribution.

Because it seems to be part of the possible manifestations of underlying /t/ we also look at the glottal stop, and will judge whether this can be analysed as ‘an allophone of /t/’ or not. (As we'll see – it can't; it's not.)

The chapter closes with a brief recap on the work we've done on the consonant system of English to date.

Consonant distribution and intuitions about syllables

By ‘distribution’ we mean the ways in which consonant segments may be distributed within well-formed English syllables – how they occur, and what kinds of segments they can co-occur with. It must be admitted that at this stage in our work we only have an intuitive notion of what a syllable is, but nevertheless I've found in my teaching that such an intuitive awareness is quite sufficient on which to base preliminary judgements about how English consonants are distributed.