English Phonology

Recognising that two objects or concepts are ‘the same but different’ought to present a major philosophical problem; the phrase itself seemsself-contradictory. However, in practice we categorise elements of ourworld in just this way on an everyday basis. A two-year-old can grasp thefact that his right shoe and left shoe are very similar, but actually belongon different feet; and as adults, we have no difficulty in recognisingthat lemons and limes are different but both citrus fruits, or that miseryand happiness are different but both emotions. This sort of hierarchicalclassification is exactly what is at issue when we turn to the notion of thephoneme.