ABSTRACT
In this chapter, a number of related issues concerning distinctive features (DFs) and the representation of segments are explored. First of all, the pros and cons of binary features and multivalued features are re-examined. Thereafter, we shall see whether segments should be represented in terms of partial feature matrices (archisegments) or fully specified matrices and whether markedness considerations should be incorporated into the model. These discussions will pave the way for a presentation of recent work in Chapter 5 – Underspecification Theory – where it is argued that strict binarism should be abandoned at the lexical level in favour of one-valued features. In the closing section of this chapter (3.5), we consider the advantages of giving more internal structure to segments in the form of ‘gestures’.
