Feature Geometry and Dependency: A Review

Abstract

A fundamental problem in phonological theory is the fact that processes often operate on consistent subsets of the distinctive features within a segment, like the features that characterize place of articulation. Recent research has responded to this problem by proposing a hierarchical organization of the features into functionally related classes, grouped under nodes of a tree structure. This ‘geometry’ resembles earlier theories that accomplish the same thing with multivalued features. This article reviews and expands the evidence for feature geometry. Within the segment, it is argued, the major dichotomy is between a Laryngeal node and a Place node. The manners of articulation – sonority, consonantality, nasality, and continuance – inhere in the segment itself rather than any of its subsidiary parts. Within the Place node, the division is into major articulators, each with its own subordinate features. Evidence is drawn from processes of assimilation and debuccalization and from the assimilatory and dissimilatory effects of the Obligatory Contour Principle.

Asimilasi Homorganik Nasal Dialek Melayu Saribas (Homorganic Nasal Assimilation in Saribas Malay Dialect)

“…Dengan erti kata lain, fitur-fitur yang diwakili oleh sesuatu segmen atau konsonan dikategorikan mengikut alat artikulasi utama. Oleh sebab itu, Halle tidak bersetuju dengan McCarthy (1988) dan Sagey (1986) yang mengelaskan segmen berdasarkan nodus, sebaliknya Halle menegaskan segmen dikategorikan berasaskan fitur mengikut artikulasi utama.…”

CVX Theory in CCCCCCVX Languages: Implications for Universal Grammar

“…The feature geometry assumed by Duanmu (2002) is given in (2) (c.f., Clements (1985), Sagey (1986), Ladefoged & Halle (1988), McCarthy (1988, Steriade (1989), Kenstowicz (1994) and Halle (1995) [-nasal]. When a complex segment is characterized by multiple articulators, the articulator with the greater degree of stricture is considered the major articulator (represented throughout by * after the major articulator, following Kenstowicz (1994) pw, pr, pl, pj, tw, tr, tj, kw, kr, kl, kj, bw, br, bl, bj, dw, d r, dj, w, r, l, j, fw, fr, fl, fj, w, r, j, sw, sr, sl, sj, s p, st, sk, sf, sv, sm, sn, w, r, t, n, m,vw, vr, vl, vj, zw, zl, zj, hj, lj, nj, mj…”

“…'friend' *q'lob' While many of the clusters that Barrett (1999Barrett ( , 2000 reports can be represented as single segments, a large number of these sequences must be two segments given the No Contour Principle. An analysis of syllable structure in Sipakapense couched in the CVX theory is forced, then, to say that Sipakapense tolerates unlicensed internal segments, or possibly that there is further syllabification among the Cs, as in Berber (Dell & Elmedlaoui 1985, 1988. The problem this seems to pose for the CVX theory is not the fact that there are unlicensed internal segments, but the CVX theory does not seem equipped on its own to predict that at most one unsyllabified segment can occur word-internally.…”

Geometric accounts of consonant-vowel interactions in developing systems

“…There have been numerous proposals regarding the properties and structures needed to constitute an adequate feature geometry (e.g. Clements, 1985;McCarthy, 1988;Sagey, 1986). These have evolved mainly from examinations of assimilations, dissimilations, and the effects of the obligatory contour principle in fully developed primary languages.…”