Sound Pattern of Russian: A Linguistic and Acoustical Investigation, with an Excursus on the Contextual Variants of the Russian Vowels

209 Pages·1971·8.689 MB·English

by  Morris Halle, Lawrence G. Jones

THE SOUND PATTERN
OF RUSSIAN
DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS
OF CONTEMPORARY
STANDARD RUSSIAN
Edited by
ROMAN JAKOBSON
Harvard University
AND
C. H. VAN SCHOONEVELD
Leiden University
I
1971
MOUTON
THE HAGUE · PARIS
THE S O U ND PATTERN
OF RUSSIAN
A Linguistic and Acoustical Investigation
by
MORRIS HALLE
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
with an Excursus on
THE CONTEXTUAL VARIANTS OF
THE RUSSIAN VOWELS
by
LAWRENCE G. JONES
Harvard University
Second Printing
1971
MOUTON
THE HAGUE · PARIS
© Copyright 1959 in The Netherlands.
Mouton & Co. N.V., Publishers, The Hague.
No part of this book may be translated or reproduced in any form, by print, photoprint, microfilm,
or any other means, without written permission from the publishers.
First Printing 1959
Printed in The Netherlands by Mouton & Co., Printers, The Hague.
INTRODUCTORY NOTE
This series of monographs intends to contribute to an exhaustive description and
consistent analysis of contemporary standard Russian (CSR).
Exhaustiveness means establishing phonological and grammatical rules on the basis
of the total lexical inventory of CSR and of all those kinds of combinations which this
inventory admits. If a rule has restricted application, all the exceptions are to be cited
and interpreted. No vague 'etc.' is allowed. Oversimplified levelling of the standard
must be avoided and the extant variations in the over-all code of CSR are to be noted
and commented on, especially the coexistence and functional diiference of older and
newer variants in the course of linguistic changes. Thus the dynamic aspect of CSR
cannot be overlooked by its comprehensive synchronic description.
This analysis strives both for a maximum scientific control of CSR and for testing
new means and goals in linguistic theory and methodology. Consistency of analysis
means that any divisible unit is first to be broken down into its immediate constituents
(whether concurrent or successive) and, secondly, the laws of its composition are to be
determined. More generally, on any level of language the laws underlying any given
set of kindred linguistic units are to be sought. Thus an inventory of phonemes
requires their analysis into distinctive features and an inquiry into the laws of their
stratification. Any grammatical paradigm demands the elucidation of rules which
underlie it and which connect it with all other kindred paradigms. The optimal rules
disclosed by the analysis are those which offer the highest degree of predictability.
The autonomous structure of any given linguistic level does not mean its separate
existence in language and does not justify the linguist's inattention to the intimate and
lawful interconnections of the different levels. The analysis must bridge phonemics and
morphology, morphology and syntax, grammatical and lexical patterning, grammar
and stylistics. The linking up of these autonomous but correlated domains has been
considered by our team a particularly timely and pertinent task. The communalities
and differences in the phonemic make-up of the different classes of morphemes and of
the different grammatical categories efface the boundary between phonemics and
morphology. It is the confrontation of vocabulary with grammar which gives us an
6 Introductory Note
insight into the classification of words and into the structural laws of the lexical
pattern.
The problem of invariance is fundamental for the description of any linguistic level:
the phonemic invariants in contextual and stylistic sound variations; the semantic
invariants of any given morphological category in syntactic and lexical variations.
The search for linguistic invariants is inseparably connected with the extraction of
redundancy, extraction of which is a device of primary importance on all linguistic
levels. The elicitation of the redundancy-free models, the inquiry into the different
linguistic roles and degrees of redundancy, and the comparative study of a scale of
elliptic sub-codes in relation to the explicit sub-code of CSR belong to our pivotal
aims.
The referential (designative, cognitive) function of verbal communication despite
its primary importance is not to be promoted as the sole function of language and as
the sole concern of linguistics. All the cardinal functions of language (referential,
emotive, conative, phatic, poetic, and metalingual) in their interrelationship must be
subjected to close examination. In particular, metalanguage, far from being a mere
artificial tool of linguists and logicians, is a substantial constituent of our verbal
communication in its various aspects. .Metalingual statements of native informants
are to be conceived on equal footing with their other utterances. This approach gives
the linguist the necessary command of such essential aspects of verbal communi-
cation as intralingual and interlingual translation and enables him to cope with
semantic information as the crux of language on all its levels - lexical, grammatical,
and phonemic. The frequent occurrence and great extent of homonymity and synony-
mity is to be carefully examined but evidently cannot be used as an argument against
the primarily semantic nature of grammatical or phonemic units.
In accordance with modern scientific methodology, the search for a set of rules
underlying CSR or any other given linguistic system must rigorously take into account
the interaction between the observer and the object under observation. The verbal
code is viewed differently by a cryptanalyst than by the actual or virtual code-users,
and among the latter it is differently treated by the decoder and the encoder. The
rules of verbal input and output are complementary and are not to be mechanically
intermingled. The phonemic cues are prior to the grammatical unit for the listener,
whereas the phonemic operations of the speaker are based on grammatical prere-
quisites: the two opposite linguistic views of the hierarchical order between morpho-
phonemics and phonemics proper simply mirror two different frames of reference,
namely the standpoints of the two participants in the speech event.
Not only does linguistics tend to overcome mutual alienation of its own disciplines,
but also its former isolationism in respect to neighboring sciences is to be relinquished.
Of course, to secure fruitful cooperation, not only the common aims but also the
basic differences among the concurrent sciences and the autonomous principles of
each of them are to be watchfully respected.
In order to follow the verbal message, in particular its phonological components,
Introductory Note 7
from source to destination, we must be able to investigate the physiological data on
their production, the physical properties of their transmission and the psychological
traits of their perception. Also the aural and neurological stages of these signals will
perhaps disclose their differential characteristics. The interrelation of these stages,
particularly of the motor and acoustic phases, is a highly instructive lesson for the
linguist. While in the first monograph of our series Morris Halle tackles the questions
of the Russian phonemic pattern and its acoustic correlates, in the second monograph
Gunnar Fant demonstrates the analytical ties between speech production and the
stage of the speech wave, and by calculations based on X-ray studies of Russian
articulations achieves an exact predictability of acoustic effect from sound pro-
duction.
The scrutiny of the encoding aspect of a given language brings the linguist close to
the constructs of language attempted by mathematical logic. On the other hand, the
decoding aspect, necessarily probabilistic, confronts the linguist with the methods and
concepts of the mathematical theory of communication. In both of these cases this
contact opens new outlooks both for linguistics and for mathematics. In any thorough
analysis of a given language, attention must be paid to these interdisciplinary quests.
That part of phonology which deals with syntactic information, phrase stress, and
pauses — as well as with their emotive modifications — has much in common with
musicology which treats similar material although differently organized and used for
quite other purposes. The third monograph of our series, prepared in common by a
musicologist and linguist (Mrs. J. E. Buning and C. H. Van Schooneveld), tries to take
into account for a phonological description of Russian intonations the methods of
musical analysis with unfailing attention to differences in musical and linguistic
patterning of the same elements.
The utilization of linguistic material in messages with a prevalently poetic function
requires a systematic description and analysis of contemporary Russian poetic
language through the joint efforts of poetics and linguistics proper.
The multiple and intricate relationship of language and culture calls for a far-
reaching confrontation of CSR with the data of Russian cultural anthropology. The
question of the ties between language and its social and cultural background is
particularly beneficial in view of the multifarious and strenuous changes which
Russian life has undergone since World War I.
The lexical, grammatical and stylistic richness of CSR and the opulent material
collected by Russian philologists makes a thorough analysis of this language partic-
ularly welcome and fertile. It suffices to recall the numerous and invaluable inferences
which a meticulous linguistic scrutiny has been able to draw from the four volumes
of the famous USakov dictionary in the most intricate questions of Russian deri-
vation, inflection, and word classes.
Our series of monographs begins with three groups of works: A) phonetic and
phonological studies, B) morphological and syntactic studies, C) lexical and phraseo-
logical studies. All these groups are closely interlinked. These monographs arise
8 Introductory Note
from the research project on "Description and Analysis of Contemporary Standard
Russian" directed by R. Jakobson at the Department of Slavic Languages and
Literatures of Harvard University and sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation
1950-1958. During this period the participants in the research work were: R. Aber-
nathy (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), H. Arntz (University of North Ca-
rolina), B. Aroutunova-Tschirwa (Harvard University), J. Beebe (Indiana University),
J. E. Buning (Leiden), C. Cherry (Imperial College, University of London), C. Daw-
son (Syracuse University), G. Fant (Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm), J.
Ferrell (University of Michigan), P. Garvin (Georgetown University, Institute of
Languages and Linguistics), M. Halle (Massachusetts Institute of Technology),
G. Hiittl-Worth (University of California, Los Angeles), A. Humecky (University
of Michigan), R. Jakobson (Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Techno-
logy), L. G. Jones (Harvard University), G. Kelemen (Harvard University Medical
School), H. Klagstad (Indiana University), E. Klima (Massachusetts Institute of
Technology), H. Kuöera (Brown Univexsity), E. Levin (Syracuse University), H. G.
Lunt (Harvard University), A. S. Macmillan (Harvard University Medical School),
L. Matejka (University of Michigan), L. Micklesen (University of Washington),
I. Morozova-Lynch (Wellesley College), E. Pacaluyko (Wellesley College), S. Rago-
zin (Syracuse University), Ή. Rubenstein (Boiling Air Force Base, Operational Appli-
cations Laboratory, Washington, D. C.), G. Shevelev (Columbia University),
E. Stankiewicz (Indiana University), V. Tumins (Brown University), C. H. van
Schooneveld (University of Leiden), D. Worth (University of California, Los Angeles),
M. Zarechniak (Georgetown University, Institute of Languages and Linguistics).
Among the books to appear next, besides the three cited contributions to sound
analysis, there are monographs treating the structure of Russian roots; the vowel-zero
alternations; nominal declension; nominal derivation; nominal composition; con-
jugation; verbal derivation; participles and gerunds.
The principles and tasks outlined have led our teamwork without, however,
imposing a sectarian uniformity upon any single contribution. Each author remains
responsible for his theoretical postulates and conclusions. This does not interfere
with our common goal — to pose new questions and to strive toward the most con-
structive and complete answers to questions old and new.
Roman Jakobson
C. H. van Schooneveld
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introductory Note 5
Foreword 11
A Note on the Sign Conventions 16
PART I PHONOLOGY
Chapter I SEGMENTS AND BOUNDARIES 19
1. Introduction: A Theory of Phonology 19
2. The Phonological System of Russian 44
3. Comments on Details of the Phonological System of Russian 50
Chapter II SEQUENTIAL CONSTRAINTS 55
1. Introduction 55
2. The Morpheme Structure (MS) Rules 56
3. The Phonological (P) Rules 62
PART II ACOUSTICS
Chapter III A NON-TECHNICAL ACCOUNT OF SOME ELEMENTARY CON-
CEPTS AND TECHNIQUES OF ACOUSTICS 79
1. Introduction 79
2. Elementary Exposition of Some Concepts and Techniques of
Acoustics 79
3. Digression on the Relation Between the Descriptive Frame-
works of Acoustics, of Psycho-Acoustics and of Phonetics 88
Chapter IV A CRITICAL SURVEY OF ACOUSTICAL INVESTIGATIONS OF
SPEECH SOUNDS 91
Chapter V THE ACOUSTICAL CORRELATES OF THE DISTINCTIVE
FEATURES OF RUSSIAN 111
1. Subjects and Material Ill