ABSTRACT

Characteristics of (phonological) features that function to distinguish meaning. ( also distinctive feature, phonology)

References

distinctive feature

Class of phonetically defined components of phonemes that function to distinguish meaning. In contrast to redundant features, distinctive features constitute relevant phonological features. In the structuralist framework, phonemes are described as ‘bundles’ of distinctive features, e.g. /p/ as [+consonant, -voiced, +bilabial, -nasal], with the differentiation from /b/ resting alone on the distinctive feature of [+voiced]. The number of distinctive features is smaller than the number of phonemes, for example Jakobson and Halle (1956) have suggested a universal binary system ( binary opposition) of twelve distinctive features believed to be sufficient to describe all languages of the world. The differentiation of distinctive features is based on spectrally defined and acoustically analyzed criteria such as the position of the formants. Distinctive feature theory, based on the premise that all humans are psychologically and physically the same, is a fundamental concept of structural and generative phonology. It has further applications in other levels of linguistic description, such as semantic primitives, componential analysis, and lexical decomposition in semantics.