REFLECTION OF LINGUISTIC PLURALISM IN PHONOLOGICAL CONCEPTS

Abstract

The paper consists of two parts. The first part presents the overview of scientific pluralism as a phenomenon that pertains any type of science, which has held a certain way of formation and development over the years. The «pros» and «cons» of pluralism are considered. «Pros» include the possibility of expanding the research area by introducing the new language material, and through the usage of non-traditional approaches to the research object; «cons» include the low level of reasoning observed in some cases when forming new concepts. Reductionism opposes pluralism. It appears with the absolutization of a single or authors’ approaches to the research object. The second part covers the analysis of the following foreign and Russian phonological concepts: descriptive American phonology, two varieties of generative phonology –standard generative phonology and natural generative phonology, the phonological concept of Nikolai Trubetzkoy, Moscow and Leningrad phonological schools, the concept of «late» Ruben Avanesov, phonological concept of Sebastian Shaumyan. Theoretical contribution of each concept along with the possibility of its pragmatic applicability is estimated. Concepts are compared firstly, according to the reflection of sound acoustic-articulatory characteristics in the phoneme (phoneme-sound correlation principle); secondly, according to the phonemic structure in paradigmatics and syntagmatics. The absence of complete match of these parameters in concepts indicates the manifestation of pluralism in the area of phonological research.