ABSTRACT
It is a fundamental aim of phonetic research to uncover invariant structures for individual languages or—at least with regard to certain aspects—for human language generally, in spite of the great variability of speech processes. Phonological theories since the 1920s assumed that the problem of invariance can be solved by concentrating on sound features taken from their sequential context and viewed as members of a paradigm of sound oppositions. Thus, phonetic phenomena arc no longer evaluated simply on the strength of their physical manifestation, but by the relationships they enter into in this paradigm, i.e. in the phonological system. Structural relations between such paradigmatic elements take priority over the observable phonetic substance of elements isolated from the system. Phonetic properties are thus to be reduced to those components which are considered necessary and sufficient for the signalling of such oppositions in a particular language.
