16.3630, Review: Textbooks/Applied Ling/Phonology: Yavas (2006)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-16-3630. Tue Dec 20 2005. ISSN: 1068 - 4875.

Subject: 16.3630, Review: Textbooks/Applied Ling/Phonology: Yavas (2006)

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What follows is a review or discussion note contributed to our 
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1)
Date: 19-Dec-2005
From: Dinha Gorgis < gorgis_3 at yahoo.co.uk >
Subject: Applied English Phonology 

	
-------------------------Message 1 ---------------------------------- 
Date: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 14:19:43
From: Dinha Gorgis < gorgis_3 at yahoo.co.uk >
Subject: Applied English Phonology 
 

AUTHOR: Yavas, Mehmet
TITLE: Applied English Phonology
PUBLISHER: Blackwell Publishing
YEAR: 2006
Announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/16/16-2415.html 

Dinha T. Gorgis, Department of English, Hashemite University, Jordan

SUMMARY

The aim of this book is ''to provide material on the sound patterns of 
American English that is usable by students and professionals in the 
field of phonological remediation'' (Preface), in particular to instructors 
and students of English as a second/foreign language. And this 
explains why each of the nine chapters is followed by exercises.

As is the case with almost any introductory textbook on (English) 
phonetics and phonology, linguistics, and (teaching) pronunciation 
(e.g. O'Connor 1980, Hawkins 1984, Gimson 1989, Robins 1989,  
Katamba 1989, Roach 1991, Fromkin and Rodman 1998, Teschner & 
Whitely 2004, among others), which find 'phonetics' their 'bread and 
butter', this book starts with 'phonetics', obviously reminiscent of Pike's 
(1947) famous statement: ''phonetics provides raw material; 
phonology cooks it.'' To the exclusion of auditory phonetics, the book, 
with the exception of chapter five on acoustic phonetics, is largely 
devoted to articulatory phonetics, taxonomic (distributional) phonology 
and, to a lesser degree, to morphophonology.  The notational system 
used to represent American English phonetically is basically that of the 
International Phonetic Alphabet which extends to some other ten 
languages (p.16). In this chapter, ''the fundamentals of articulatory 
phonetics including voicing, places and manners of articulation, voice 
onset time'' are elucidated, and ''a brief account of syllable and 
suprasegmental features such as stress, tone, pitch, and length'' 
(pp.22-23) is presented so as to pave way for what follows next.

Chapter two, titled ''Phonology'', presents a classical phonemic 
analysis of English in terms of functional/non-functional contrasts, viz. 
complementary vs. overlapping distribution, and free variation; the 
minimal-pair technique is used as a tool for establishing phonemes, 
allophones, and other variants. Interestingly, what counts as two or 
more allophones of the same phoneme in one language can be 
allophones of different phonemes in other languages, e.g. Korean, 
Spanish, etc. Applications based on such contrasts are seen to 
be ''indispensable [not only to] devising alphabetical writing systems'', 
but to the study of phonemics as ''a vital tool for foreign language 
teachers and speech and language therapists, who constitute the 
major targeted audience of this book'' (p.49).

The English consonant phonemes of American English, their 
contextual variants, and pertinent dialectal, especially cross-
continental, variations constitute the backbone of chapter three. As in 
orthodox descriptions, the 24 consonants of English already shown to 
comprise six classes in terms of manner of articulation (see Table 1.2, 
p.9) are here accounted for in terms of five groups whereby liquids 
and glides are, as the convention goes, characterized as 
approximants.

Chapter four, likewise, handles the description and distribution of 
English vowels and their variants within the United States. Perhaps 
because the description of vowels and diphthongs ''is a much more 
complex task than doing the same for the consonants... a 
comparison  of American English with some other major varieties 
spoken outside the US'' (p.76) takes the form of four tables (pp.86-87) 
containing mostly monosyllabic words pointing to differences in one 
direction, viz. American vs. others.

Still wishing ''to present information that will be helpful to teachers of 
English and/or speech therapists in their assessment and planning of 
remediation'' (p.96), Yavas supplies some basic knowledge 
concerning the acoustics of vowels and consonants in chapter five. In 
examining spectrographic characteristics of speech, viz. frequency, 
time, and amplitude, consonants are classified into obstruents (with 
different degrees of obstruction: a gap for stops, friction noise for 
fricatives, and stop gap followed by a friction noise for affricates), and 
sonorants which ''behave rather like vowels in that they exhibit a voice 
bar along with formant-like structures (p.120).

In any phonological account, the syllable cannot be dispensed with, 
especially if the work concentrates on the distribution of individual 
sounds and sound sequences, phonotactics, and stress assignment, 
among other things. It is chapter six which tells us what type of 
constraints there can be on sound patterning in one language but not 
in another. ''It is on this basis that a speaker of English can judge 
some new form as a possible/impossible word'' (p.127).

Chapter seven, no less important than six, explores ''some basic 
patterns in English stress and intonation' (p.173). Like many 
phonologists (e.g. Roach 1991, and Teschner & Whitely 2004, 
representing British and American traditions, respectively), as well as 
many teachers of English phonology around the globe, Yavas does 
not see English word-stress to be rule-governed. Rather, he finds 
it ''variable and mobile, [but] there appear to be some significant 
generalizations about its predictability'' (p.173). Although secondary 
stress for teaching purposes is largely ignored in the British tradition, 
the author assigns as equal prominence to it as the primary (main) 
stress. While the former is said to be predictable, the latter is 
differentiated by the effect of major pitch change.

Chapter eight examines some structural factors in second/foreign 
language phonology. Ten languages are briefly contrasted with 
English to show several learning difficulties most likely to emerge from 
mismatches between L1 and L2 phonemes and allophones. The 
comparisons, showing phonemic and phonetic conflicts between L1 
and L2, extend to another five languages, a summary of which is 
presented in the form of a table (p.198). Beyond this simple contrast, 
which is seen insufficient to pin point all of the learner's difficulties, ''lie 
deeper principles which can account for different degrees of difficulty' 
(p.208). Therefore, to obtain a more accurate and generalized picture 
of such difficulties, appeal is made to the notion of 'markedness' as 
developed by Eckman 1977; 1985; Eckman & Iverson 1994. 
Markedness, conceived of as a 'universal' constraint, varies along a 
scale corresponding to degrees of difficulty encountered by L2 
learners.

Following up brief mention of the rather unsystematic relationship 
between the graphemes and the phonemes of English in chapters one 
and two, the author devotes the whole of chapter nine, the last 
chapter in the book, to spelling and pronunciation. The phonemes and 
the graphemes for which they stand are presented firstly, followed by 
correspondences via reverse direction. The chapter ends with a 
number of lists showing differences in spelling between American and 
British Englishes.

EVALUATION

Let me start from the bottom line: This textbook is, in addition to being 
an excellent introduction to both the phonology and  pronunciation of 
English, is a source of inspiration for those who lack much of language 
awareness, and for prospective researchers who whish to follow up 
and/ or verify some of the interesting claims made on English sound 
patterning and behavior. The comments that shall follow are meant to 
improve the book in preparation for the second edition; for over the 
last three decades of teaching English phonology, my students have 
kept asking me questions for which I still have no conclusive answers. 
Before I go any further, two remarks need to be made: first, the 
audience to which this book is addressed. At the very start of the 
book, there is a note to the 'instructor', which no doubt, is the mediator 
between L1 and L2 and hence the remediator. On the other hand, 
one is almost puzzled to read Roy Major's words on the back cover, 
which positively evaluate the book as: '' A detailed description of 
English phonetics and phonology that can be easily understood by 
those with no prior training in linguistics.'' I think the last two lines in 
the book are quite sufficient to bewilder even those who had an 
introductory training in linguistics. Building on the first remark, the 
second  has to do with users and countries/institutions that will use it 
as a textbook. Although the author has already given freedom of 
chapter selection, he takes it for granted that the instructor is already 
familiar, or must familiarize themselves, with the American accent. The 
book, after all, is not accompanied by CD-ROM which could have 
facilitated the pronunciation of not only English sounds, but the 
sounds of ten languages whose speakers are supposed to be 
learning some variety of English, mainly American or British as is the 
case in the Middle East

Throughout the text, the author has used the term 'remediation'( one 
which we expect to be brought down to earth, as the title suggests) in 
two senses, viz. remedying L2 learners' difficulties by the instructor, 
and remedying language disorders by the therapist. Unexpectedly, 
Yavas addresses the issue of communication disorders in the United 
States only. Why comparing AE ''with some other major varieties 
spoken outside the US'' (p.76), then? Remedy of either sort, however, 
is unfortunately not found anywhere in the book. The only lucky 
person is perhaps the learner of English as a second/foreign 
language who, with or without the help of the instructor, is supposed 
to draw on language mismatches and insightful contrastive results 
and, consequently, overcome their difficulties. Regretfully, there is not 
even one single exercise in this direction. I think that the author would 
agree with me that it is not enough to say that a particular sound, or 
its variant, is found in x or y language. What use can a learner/an 
instructor/a therapist make of the differences that exist between an 
aspirated English stop, for example, and a non-aspirated Arabic 
equivalent as long as aspiration in English is non-phonemic? 

The fifth chapter on the ''Acoustics of Vowels and Consonants'' is no 
doubt useful, but impractical. In the absence of experimental 
laboratories, say in the Arab world, the chapter will, with perhaps a 
brief introduction, most likely be skipped by the instructor. Even if the 
instruments were made available, acoustic phonetics would require at 
least one semester on its own. And if we intend to consider the 
productions of the client (learner/patient) whose ''progress needs to 
be constantly evaluated via instrumentation [on the belief that] [m]
onitoring the change......would.....accelerate the remediation process'' 
(p.119), a number of semesters will be required, especially if the class 
is large.

Giving excerpts selected from four sources talking about world 
Englishes for students to transcribe at the end of each chapter is 
disappointing because: (1) the learner is expected to have had no 
prior training; (2) the required task has no explicit and immediate 
relevance to the content of each chapter; (3) the author leaves the 
question of narrow (phonetic)/broad (phonemic) transcription open. 
And unless weak forms are introduced in connected speech first, it 
would be unwise to introduce passages (intended to be read in the 
first place!) for unguided transcription. It is only much later 
acknowledged (p.90) that ''connected speech is a very fertile context 
to accommodate many changes, especially for unstressed function 
words.'' Instead, conversations carefully selected are recommended 
as long as the book implicitly aims at achieving native-like 
pronunciation in the learner.

Reference to British English, in particular RP (received pronunciation), 
is demonstrably made more frequently than to any other variety. 
Today, we talk about Southern British English (SBE) instead (cf. 
Roach 1991). However, differences between AE and BE, though 
mostly in one direction, go beyond what we simply see in the text, 
especially the question of BE diphthongs (9 in RP vs. 8 in SBE). What 
is annoying in the comparisons, including variations in the US, is that 
the author supports his argument by citing variants in the ''speech of 
some''. I think it would have been much better if he had made appeal 
to Labov et al. (2005) for the sake of generalizations.

Injustice, attributable to Broselow (1993), extends to Arabic; certain 
Lebanese and Egyptian observations are inadequate, and can in no 
way be generalized to all Arabic dialects and their regional variations. 
Mind the cautious reader that there are over 280 million Arabic 
speakers in the Arab world alone. And this itself requires a series of 
independent studies.

The issue of vowel length is so delicate that no two phonologists can 
come into agreement, but arguments can often be forwarded on 
phonological basis. For example, the vowel [I] [I = lax high front 
unround vowel -Eds] is said to have ''several different phonetic 
manifestations; it may undergo 'tensing' and be realized as [i] before
palato-alveolar fricatives (e.g. fish [fiS] [S = voiceless alveopalatal 
fricative -Eds].'' And that ''for some speakers [i] may be in free variation 
with [I] in final position (e.g. city [sIti] / [sItI], happy [hæpI])'' (p. 82). 
Elsewhere (p.80), ''the contrast between the two high front vowels, /i/ 
and /I/, seems to disappear in words such as ear, fear, beard, pier, 
etc.'' In BE, the problem is already solved; whether in fish, city, or dig, 
the vowel is neither [I] nor [i:], but an archiphoneme whose length is in 
between, and represented as [i]. This is a useful distinction for 
pedagogical purposes, I suppose. If this were not the case for AE, it is 
very much likely that [i], a tense vowel, would receive primary stress. 
And instead of the r-colored production in AE, wherever /i/ and [I] are 
neutralized, BE selects the diphthong /IE/ [E = schwa -Eds].

Last but not least, students, such as mine, might perhaps be 
disappointed when unable to find answers to the following questions, 
which I find legitimate for a textbook like this because the author is 
addressing the issue of spelling and the relationship that holds 
between graphemes and phonemes:
1. When to use the suffix -ance or -ence (and -ant or -ent)?
2. When to reduce com- and con- initially in disyllabic and multisyllabic 
words?
3. When is the letter 'g' pronounced as [g] or [J] [J = voiced alveopalatal 
affricate -Eds], or [Z] [Z = voiced alveopalatal fricative -Eds] in borrowed 
words? Is its pronunciation, like that of 'c', governed by the same 
following letters, viz. 'e', 'i', and 'y'?
4. And is it true that native speakers of English store lexical words in 
their memory along with their stresses during acquisition, as some 
researchers claim?

This does not mean that phonology instructors do not have answers 
to these and the like questions, but learners would like to have 
conclusive answers in print.

REFERENCES

Broselow, E. (1993). Transfer and universals in second language 
epenthesis. In S. Gass and L. Selinker (eds.), Language Transfer in 
Language Learning (pp. 71-86). Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 

Eckman, F. (1977). Markedness and the contrastive analysis 
hypothesis. Language Learning 27: 315-30.

Eckman, F. (1985). Some theoretical and pedagogical implications of 
the markedness differential hypothesis. Studies in Second Language 
Acquisition 13: 23-41. 

Eckman, F. and G. Iverson (1994). Pronunciation difficulties in ESL: 
coda consonants in English interlanguage. In M. Yavas (ed.). First and 
Second Language Phonology (pp. 251-65). San Diego, CA: Singular 
Publishing. 

Fromkin, V. and R. Rodman (1998). An Introduction to Language. 6th 
ed. Fort Worth, Texas: Harcourt, Brace. 

Gimson, A. C. (1989). An Introduction to the Pronunciation of English. 
4th ed., revised by  S. Ramsaran. London: Edward Arnold. 

Hawkins, P. (1984). Introducing Phonology. London: Hutchinson. 

Katamba, F. (1989). An Introduction to Phonology. London: Longman. 

Labov, W., S. Ash, and C. Boberg, eds. (2005). The Atlas of North 
American English: phonetics, phonology and sound change. A 
Multimedia Reference Tool. Mouton de Gruyter. 

O'Connor, J. D. (1980). Better English Pronunciation. 2nd ed. 
Cambridge: CUP. 

Pike, K. L. (1947). Phonemics. Michigan: University of Michigan Press. 

Roach, P. J. (1991). English Phonetics and Phonology. 2nd ed. 
Cambridge: CUP. 

Robins, R. H. (1989). General Linguistics. 4th ed. London: Longman. 

Teschner, R. V. and M. S. Whitley (2004). Pronouncing English: A 
Stress-Based Approach with CD-ROM. Washington: Georgetown 
University Press. 

ABOUT THE REVIEWER

Dinha T. Gorgis is professor of linguistics at the Hashemite University, 
Jordan. He has been teaching English phonology (with occasional 
reference to Arabic) at a number of Arab universities since 1975. 
During 1984-1999, he was mainly involved in teaching graduate 
courses, e.g. syntax, semantics, sociolinguistics, pragmatics, 
discourse analysis, and translation, and in supervising M.A. and Ph.D. 
research work pertinent to these fields. He is co-editor of two 
international online journals, viz. Linguistik, and WATA (published in 
both English and Arabic). His most recent publication (2005) 
is "Binomials in Iraqi and Jordanian Arabic", which can be accessed 
freely in: Journal of Language and Linguistics, Vol. 4, No. 2, 135-151.





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