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2.3 Distinctive features

2.3 Distinctive features. The idea of Distinctive Features was first developed by Roman Jacobson (1896-1982) in the 1940s as a means of working out a set of phonological contrasts or oppositions to capture particular aspects of language sounds.

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2.3 Distinctive features

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  1. 2.3 Distinctive features • The idea of Distinctive Features was first developed by Roman Jacobson (1896-1982) in the 1940s as a means of working out a set of phonological contrasts or oppositions to capture particular aspects of language sounds. • Since then several versions have been suggested.

  2. Some of the major distinctions include [consonantal], [sonorant], [nasal] and [voiced]. • The feature [consonantal] can distinguish between consonants and vowels, so all consonants are [+consonantal] and all vowels [–consonantal]. • [sonorant] distinguishes between what we call obstruents (stops, fricatives and affricates) and sonorants (all other consonants and vowels), with obstruents being [–sonorant] and others [+sonorant]. • [nasal] and [voiced] of course distinguish nasal (including nasalized) sounds and voiced sounds respectively.

  3. These are known as binaryfeatures because we can group them into two categories: one with this feature and the other without. • Binary features have two values or specifications denoted by ‘ + ’ and ‘ – ’ so voiced obstruents are marked [+voiced] and voiceless obstruents are marked [–voiced].

  4. The place features are not binary features – they are divided up into four values: • [PLACE: Labial] • [PLACE: Coronal] • [PLACE: Dorsal] • [PLACE: Radical] • They are often written in shorthand forms as • [Labial]p • [Coronal]p • [Dorsal]p • [Radical]p

  5. A useful feature for consonants not found here is [±spread] (for ‘spread glottis’), which distinguishes between ‘aspirated’ and ‘unaspirated’ voiceless obstruents. • Aspirated sounds are [+spread] and unaspirated sounds are [–spread]. • Now we can represent the rule that governs the unaspiration of /p/ after [s] in terms of features:

  6. This is a more general rule, which also applies to /t/ and /k/. It means that /p, t, k/ ([–voiced, –cont]) are all unaspirated ([–spread]) after [s] and aspirated ([+spread]) in all other positions.

  7. Past tense forms in English • stopped, walked, coughed, kissed, leashed, reached • stabbed, wagged, achieved, buzzed, soothed, bridged • steamed, stunned, pulled • played, flowed, studied • wanted, located, decided, guided

  8. The regular past tense form in English is pronounced as [t] when the word ends with a voiceless consonant, [d] when it ends with a voiced sound, and [ɪd] when it ends with [t] or [d].

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