title: What does the system of phonemes do?
metadata.name: dc.contributor.author
metadata.value: Liberman, Anatoly S.
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.accessioned
metadata.value: 2021-03-03T14:36:58Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.available
metadata.value: 2021-03-03T14:36:58Z
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.date.issued
metadata.value: 2020-12
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.citation
metadata.value: Liberman A. S. What does the system of phonemes do? Vestnik of Saint Petersburg University. Language and Literature. 2020, 17 (4): 537–542.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.identifier.other
metadata.value: https://doi.org/10.21638/spbu09.2020.402
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.identifier.uri
metadata.value: http://hdl.handle.net/11701/25089
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.description.abstract
metadata.value: System is one of the most important concepts of modern linguistics, including phonology,
  but it remains unclear in what sense the phonemes of a language form a system. It is apparent
  that the reference is not due to the fact that vowels and consonants function in series nor to
  the interplay between the prosodic and the segmental levels. Nowadays, phonemes are usually
  presented in the form of generative models, and the possibility to do so is understood
  as system’s justification. Yet the results of such modeling testify to the researcher’s ingenuity
  rather than to the organization of language. The role of the actual system, rather than such as
  is imposed on it by a linguist, comes to the foreground in diachrony. This role does not consist
  in producing symmetry (for instance, filling a case vide) or facilitating push- and drag-chains.
  System exists to prevent the changes of sounds and prosodemes from disrupting the process of
  communication; it even makes them unnoticed by the speakers. Only diachronic phonology,
  though it borrows its framework from general phonology, gives life to two basic concepts of
  linguistics: system and the distinctive feature. Change reveals their uses, which otherwise remain
  hidden. The conclusions in the present article are drawn from the material of Germanic
  languages, mainly English: The Great Vowel Shift and some compensatory processes, including
  such consequences of apocope as the circumflex and vowel lengthening. Throughout the
  article, special emphasis is put on the protective role of the system.
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.language.iso
metadata.value: ru
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.publisher
metadata.value: St Petersburg State University
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.relation.ispartofseries
metadata.value: Vestnik of St Petersburg University. Language and Literature;Volume 17; Issue 4
metadata.lang: -
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: historical phonology
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: distinctive feature
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: compensatory lengthening
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: case vide
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.subject
metadata.value: push- and drag- chains
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.title
metadata.value: What does the system of phonemes do?
metadata.lang: en_GB
metadata.name: dc.type
metadata.value: Article
metadata.lang: en_GB
resources.filename: 537-542.pdf
resources.url: https://dspace.spbu.ru/bitstream/11701/25089/1/537-542.pdf
resources.format: Adobe PDF
resources.size: 625,36 kB