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.

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 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. 2
 These are known as binary features
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].

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 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

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 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:

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 -cont  [–spread] / [s]_____
-voice
 [+spread] in other places

 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.

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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

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 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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