opposition (n.)

A term used in LINGUISTICS to refer to linguistically important differences between UNITS. The term is used primarily in PHONOLOGY, where contrasts between DISTINCTIVE FEATURES of sound, or between the presence and absence of a feature, are referred to as oppositions. The difference between /p/ and /s/, for example, can be seen as a combination of two oppositions – PLACE and MANNER OF ARTICULATION. One of the first attempts to classify the oppositions in this sense was in the PRAGUE SCHOOL’s theory of distinctive oppositions, as first formulated in Nikolai Trubetzkoy’s Principles of Phonology (1939). The main types of opposition recognized are:

bilateral v. multilateral: the opposition between English /t/ and /d/, for example, is bilateral, because these are the only units in the system which are ALVEOLAR/PLOSIVE, and they are differentiated by the single feature of VOICING; the opposition between say, /t/ and /v/, however, is multilateral, because there is more than one parameter of contrast, e.g. /d/ v. /f/.

proportional v. isolated: the opposition between /f/ and /v/ in English is proportional, because there are other oppositions in the language which work in parallel, e.g. /s/ v. /z/,  v. ; on the other hand, the opposition between, say, /v/ and /l/ is isolated – there are no other segments that are contrasted in this particular way, i.e. VOICED LABIO-DENTAL FRICATIVE v. voiced LATERAL.

privative, gradual and equipollent: a privative opposition is a binary one, where one member is seen as marked by the presence of a feature, which its opposite member lacks (i.e. it is ‘unmarked’), as in the /p/ v. /b/ distinction in English; in a gradual opposition, degrees of difference in a language are recognized along a scale of some kind, as in a language with four front vowels /i/, /e/, /ε/ and /æ/ where (according to Trubetskoy) it would not be desirable to analyze the four degrees of vowel height in terms of privative pairs, such as ‘high’ v. ‘low’; in an equipollent opposition, the members are seen as logically equivalent to each other, contrasted neither gradually nor by a binary feature; e.g. the distinction between /p/ and /k/ cannot be analyzed, according to Trubetskoy, as a difference along a single phonetic continuum, nor can /p/ be seen as ‘non-velar’, or /k/ as ‘non-bilabial’.

constant and neutralizable: a constant opposition exists when its members can occur in all possible positions, e.g. wherever /p/ might be found in a language, a contrast with /b/ will also be found; in English, the /t/ v. /d/ distinction is neutralizable, because in some positions there is no such contrast, the opposition being realized by the same sound, as when /t/ follows initial /s/, e.g. stick does not contrast with *sdick.