Work Cited Guidance: Akrom, Muhamad Faozan, et al. Phonological Segmental Analysis of “Pond’s Commercial Advertisement”. 2011 Web. (month date, year when you cite this article).
1. Introduction
The commercial advertisement that is chosen by the writers has title “Pond’s Oil Solution Toner”. It offers Pond’s oil toner product which has three advantages for skin. Denis Laurel as the consumer feels the change of her skin after she uses it. She has done Pond’s 3-Way Astringent tests. Firstly, she feels that the product cleans her oily skin totally. Secondly, she sees her pores tightened as the result of using this product. Thirdly, it controls her face from oil. After she uses Pond’s Oil Solution Toner, she feels confident at campus. She feels very confident to walk in front of many boys. So, she suggests the audience to follow her tips by using Pond’s Oil Solution Toner.
The writers notice that the advertisement is an interesting ad due to three things. Firstly, the model in this advertisement is not British or American, but she is a Philippian. She has unique accent in pronouncing English words like when she pronouns the word deeply. The model does not pronounce completely like in English dictionary but she pronounces the word deeply by omitting phoneme /l/. Secondly, in this advertisement, there are many words that use phoneme /l/ like deeply, barely, clean, and controls oil. Thirdly, the model pronounces many words that contain phoneme /t/ as can be heard from the ad and the phoneme /t/ is pronounced in different ways. Furthermore, the advertisement has variation of consonants and allophones of certain segments. To make it clearer, the writers have made the transcription of the sound pronounced by the model:
1.deeply cleans 2.controls oil 3.barely
/Èdiù.pli kliùns/ /k«nÈtr«Ulz Il/ /Èbe«.li/
[Èdiùpi kl8¡iùns] [k«)n.ÈtH¨«Ulòz. Ilò] [Èbe«.lI]
The writers use English allophonic rules, specifically allophones of English consonants to analyze these cases. Because phoneme /l/ is a lateral approximant voiced sound and phoneme /t/ is a plosive voiceless sound, the writers use segmental phonology theory.
2. Discussion
In general, consonants have more phonemes than vowels. Consonants also have more allophones of the phonemes. In this discussion, the writers analyze the consonantal phoneme /l/ and phoneme /t/. Therefore, the writers use English Allophonic Rules.
2.1 The Consonantal Phoneme /l/
a) The phoneme /l/ in word barely and deeply
According to the transcription above, the writers conclude that the word barely /Èbe«.li/ and deeply /Èdiù.pli/ have the phoneme /l/ which is a lateral approximant. Phoneme /l/ in the word deeply and barely has the same theory where they are clearly pronounced word initially and medially before a vowel. The theory can be seen below[1]:
[+lateral]à [+clear] /_V
From the English segmental theory above it can be concluded that phoneme /l/ in the word deeply is placed before phoneme /i/ just like phoneme /l/ in the word barely. According to the theory above the word deeply should be pronounced /Èdiù.pli/ with sound of clear phoneme /l/. This is the same case as that of the barely where phoneme /l/ also should be pronounced clearly. However in this advertisement, the model pronounced the word deeply by omitting phoneme /l/. So, the sound becomes [Èdiùpi] without phoneme /l/. However, the model pronounces phoneme /l/ clearly when she pronounces the word barely and she does it without omitting phoneme /l/. Perhaps it occurs because the model is not British or American, but she is a Philippian that has no original English accent.
b) The phoneme /l/ in controls oil
controls oil /k«nÈtr«Ulz Il/ [k«)n.ÈtH¨«Ulzò. Ilò]
The transcription above shows that the word control and oil have phoneme /l/ at the end of the word. According to English allophonic rules, in this case, phoneme /l/ is velarized after a vowel before another consonant. The theory can be seen below[2]:
[+dark/velarization] /_#
After hearing the ad, the writers conclude that the model pronounces /l/ in controls oil is velarized. It is in line to the rule above.
c) The phoneme /l/ in the word clean
The word clean is transcribed /kliùn/ in the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary. There is no different between dictionary pronunciation and the model’s pronunciation. Phoneme /l/ in this word is lateral approximant where it is clearly pronounced word initially and word medially before a vowel. However, phoneme /l/ in this word also becomes devoiced phoneme. The phoneme /l/ in clean has the theory[3]:
[+lateral]à [+clear] /__V
à [- voice] / [-voice] __
According to the English allophonic rules above phoneme /l/ in this word is pronounced before phoneme /i/. Phoneme /l/ in the word clean also becomes voiceless because it is placed after phoneme /k/ which is a voiceless plosive. So, the pronunciation of the phoneme /l/ in the word clean becomes voiceless as seen in the transcription [kl8iùn] . It confirms to the rule above.
2.2 The consonantal phoneme /t/
a) The phoneme /t/ in the word better
The transcription of the word better is /Èbet.«r/ but the model has pronounced it [ÈbeR.«Õ] by using North American English accent. However, what the writers analyze is phoneme /t/. Phoneme /t/ in the word better is a voiceless alveolar plosive and it becomes a tap/flap when it is a single between two vowels the second of which is unstressed. Another example that has the same phoneme /t/ like in this case is the word fatty[ÈfQRi:]. The theory that is used to analyze this case is[4]
+plosive è +tap/flap /V_V
+alveolar [-stress]
-voice
b) The phoneme /t/ in the word test
Phoneme /t/ in the word test is aspirated voiceless plosive because phoneme /t/ in this word becomes the initial of a stressed syllable. The transcription of the word test based on the Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is /tEst/. The English allophonic rule that occurs in this word is plosive theory as can be seen below[5]:
+plosive è [+aspirated] /#_
-voice [+stress]
è [+clear] /_#
However, phoneme /t/ in this transcription is an aspirated phoneme /t/. So, according to the English allophonic rules, the transcription should be [tHEst]. The last phoneme /t/ in this word is a final cluster coda which should be pronounced clearly. In this ad, the model pronounces test without the last phoneme /t/. The model only says [tHEs]. In the fact, there should be the last phoneme /t/ but the model has omitted it.
c) The phoneme /t/ in the word astringent
The transcription of the word astringent based on Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary is /«ÈstrIn.dZ«nt/. The model in this ad also pronounces the same sounds of this word like in the dictionary. There is two phonemes /t/ in the word astringent but the writers focus to analyze the first one. The first phoneme /t/ in this word is voiceless plosive but it is unaspirated phoneme. This phoneme occurs after phoneme /s/ at the beginning of syllable. Based on English allophonic rules, the first and the last phoneme /t/ in the word astringent follows the theory of plosive phoneme which is can be seen below[6]:
+plosive à [-aspirated] /# +alveolar
-voice +fricative
-voice __
à [+clear] /_#
The last phoneme /t/ in word astringent has the same case as that of the word test. It should be pronounced clearly but the model has pronounced astringent without the last phoneme /t/. In addition, the model has pronounced astringent without stress for the first syllable. It is an interesting phenomenon that happens among Philippians[7]. She says [«strIn.dZ«n]. It makes the transcription of the word astringent pronounced by the model becomes [«sÈtHrI)n.dZ«n].
3. Conclusion
The writers conclude that the phonemes /l/ and /t/ are different consonantal phonemes since they differ in the manner articulation and in the voicing. It is based on the analysis using English allophonic rules above. The writers have explained five words (deeply, barely, clean, and controls oil) that contain phoneme /l/. The word deeply and barely has the same theory because phoneme /l/ of these words should be clearly pronounced word initially and medially before a vowel. Although the model pronounces the word deeply by omitting the sound of phoneme /l/, the writers consider this problem as the accent of the model. Next, the phoneme /l/ in words controls oil is pronounced as a velarized /l/ after a vowel before another consonant. The last phoneme /l/ that is explained in this analysis is the phoneme /l/ in the word clean. It is lateral approximant and it is clearly pronounced word initially and medially before a vowel devoiced. Another explanation of this paper is an analysis of phoneme /t/ in the word better, test, and astringent. The writers take these words because they have different environment, where the phoneme /t/ appears.
The analysis of these phonemes is aimed to understand the occurrence of the phoneme in every word. Besides analyzing the phoneme sounds of the ad, the writers also notice that the model is not an American or British. It will be different when a non-native of English produces the sound of English words. The writers believe that there are still many interesting problems in analyzing the ad. The writers suggest that the next analysis should be done more deep and more carefully in order to get the maximal result.
References:
Fauziah, Jiah. English Phonetics and Phonology: English Allophonic Rules. 2011
Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary - 3rd Edition
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phillipin_English
[1] Jiah Fauziah, English Phonetics and Phonology Course, Allophonic Rules, Chapter 6 page. 42
[2] Ibid.
[3] Jiah Fauziah, English Phonetics and Phonology Course, Allophonic Rules, Chapter 6 page.40
[4] Ibid.
[5] Jiah Fauziah, English Phonetics and Phonology Course, Allophonic Rules, Chapter 6 page.39
[6] Ibid.
