Structuralism and Feature Analysis

Social and cultural phenomena are not simply events or objects but have meaning. These
are meaningful only with respect to a set of institutionalized conventions. particular
actions of individuals are never symbolic in themselves; they are the elements out of
which is constructed a symbolic system, which must be collective. (L vi-Strauss.
Introduction to the work of Marcel Mauss p. xvi.)

Cultural meaning is determined by a system of constitutive rules. These rules do not

regulate behaviour but create the possibility of particular forms of behaviour. It is
possible to score a goal in football, to adopt a child, to go bankrupt, because of particular
sets of constitutive rules in a specific society.

We can contrast:
a goal in football a run in baseball a basket in basketball
an adopted child an illegitimate child a foster child a child

Classification renders classes of things as equivalent: this is the achievement of

categorization. This has some important consequences:

1. By categorizing as equivalent disciminably different events, persons or things in

the natural, supernatural and social world, the organism reduces the complexity of
the environment.

1. Categorization allows us to identify objects in the world around us.

1. When a category based on a set of defining attributes is established, the necessity

of constant learning is reduced.

1. Categorizing channels activity. Knowing that a man is a priest or a brother or a

judge is to know in advance what actions are appropriate.

1. Categorizing allows the organism to order and relate classes of events.

(Buchler & Selby: 1968, 216)

Examining classifications and the establishment of categories in a society is one way of

examining jural rules and constraints on behavior.

How to establish categories?

Jakobson and Halle - Fundamentals of Language (1956) introduced the notion of

distinctive features. Rather than treating sounds as chunks, Jakobson and Halle proposed
that each sound be decomposed into features which distinguishes it from every other
sound.
feature [phonetic] The smallest unit of analysis of phonological structure.

distinctive feature: A feature that is able to signal a difference in meaning by changing its
plus or minus value (e.g. the feature [voice] in the words peer and beer or pat and bat.

The difference between the two pairs of words is solely that of voice- /p/ is voiceless, /b/
is voiced. This is called a minimal pair. The phonemic inventory of a language is
established by using minimal pairs. What distinctions in a given language signal a
difference in meaning?

Articulatory phonetics studies the mechanism of producing speech. The class of possible
speech sounds is finite, and a portion of these sounds will be found in any human
language. These sounds are widely transcribed by means of the International Phonetic
Alphabet.
When we establish the phonemic inventory of a specified language, we begin with a
phonetic grid of possible distinctions, then try to establish minimal pairs to see which
distinctions in articulation are meaningful in that language. Aspiration, for example, is a
phonemic distinction in Hindi. It is not in English.

We begin with a list of possible distinctive features in a language, and establish which
distinctive features actually make a difference in meaning in that language.

Kenneth Pike, in 1967, proposed that the distinction between phonemic and phonetic, the
same concepts and procedures, could be used to investigate other cultural materials. He
proposed the term emic and etic to label this distinction. This does not mean viewed by an
outsider and view within the culture or anything of the sort.

To carry out an emic analysis, one begins with a set of possible categories established by
the researcher (an etic grid). One then sees which of these categories makes a difference
to the way the native observer--which substitution of categories brings about a difference
in meaning to the native observer.

One of the first things that you will notice in looking at a list of distinctive features in
phonetics is that is expressed as a set of binary features, present or absent. You will also
note that this may involve reducing the continuous to the discrete. This expression of
everything in terms of binary oppositions is methodologically extremely useful but, when
we leave phonetics and look at cultural material, has some dangers. The main problem is
that is permits one to classify anything. Given two items, you can always find some
respect in which they differ and place them in a relationship of binary opposition. When
two things are set in opposition, the reader is forced to make a connection and create a
meaning from the disjunction. Binary oppositions organize qualitative differences and if
these are in fact irrelevant to the matter at hand then the binary oppositions can be very
misleading. You have to resist the temptation to create elegant structures.

Feature analysis has been extremely important in the analysis of kinship terminology.
Lounsbury and Goodenough developed a method to analyze the structure of a kin term
system. It was called componential analysis, now more commonly called feature
analysis.

The first step in feature analysis of a kinship system is to construct a chart of kin terms
using a geneological grid. We use geneology and the relationships of affinity,
consanguinity and descent to establish an etic grid. Then, using kin terms used in the
language, we establish contrasting features that are relevant to the kin terminology in
question.

Feature analysis is used in areas other than kinship:

Techniques to establish features:

Frames and slots

______________ is a kind of fruit.

[A pear is a kind of fruit. true sentence
A flowerpot is a kind of fruit. false sentence.]

The technique was developed by Metzger and Williams in investigating kinds of

firewood. They wanted an interpretation free way of developing a taxonomy.