Distinctive Feature

PHONOLOGY

DISTINCTIVE FEATURE

                                          

1.      PUTRI EFILIA AGUSTIN 10320081

2.      ANA NAILATUL FITRI 10320082

3.      JIHAD PERMADI 10320087

ENGLISH LETTERS AND LANGUAGE DEPARTMENT

HUMANITIES AND CULTURE FACULTY

STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY MAULANA MALIK IBRAHIM

MALANG

Phonology: Distinctive Features

Distinctive Features

Phonological knowledge goes beyond the ability to produce all the phonetically different sounds of a language. In phonology, every different sounds called phonemes. Thus, phoneme is a distinctive speech sound,and it can change the meaning of a word. In Bahasa Indonesia, for example, the minimal pair ‘aku’ and ‘abu’represent different phonomes.
The sounds [k] and [b] cause the change of the words meaning. Furthermore, in order for two phonetic forms to differ and to contrast meaning, there must be phonetic difference between the substitued sounds. It is a distinctive feature.

Distinctive feature refers to a minimal contrastive unit used as a means of explaining how the sound system of language is organised. The first of these views is found in the approach of the Praque School, whereas the phonome is seen as a bundle of phonetic distinctive feature: the English phoneme /p/, for example, can be seen as the result of the combination of the feature of bilabial, voice, plosive, etc. According to Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman in their book ‘An Introduction to Language’ page :73, distinctive feature is a feature that distinguishes one phoneme from another.

Further, for features indicating opposite traits, we can employ a binary system using the symbols [+] and [-] (pluses and minuses) to show whether or not the attribute is present. For example, we need set up only a single feature [voiced] for two separate labels, such as voiced and voiceless. Then, voiced sound can be specified as [+voiced] and voiceless ones as [-voiced]. This binary notation is ideal for all features indicating opposite qualities. This binary system also gives advantage that we can show explicitly how members of pairs such as voiced-voiceless or nasal-oral, are related to each other in a way in which other possible pairing.

A. The Major Class Features

1. Sonorant/Nonsonorant

S. A. Schane in his book ‘Generative Phonology’ states that the feature [sonorant] refers to the resonan quality of sounds. Vowels are always [+sonorant] as are nasals,liquids, and semivowels. The obstruent stops, fricatives, affricates, and glides are, of course [-sonorant].
Sonorants are sounds produced when the vocal tract cavity configurates in which spontaneous voicing is possible, while obstruents are produced with a cavity configuration that makes this kind of voicing is impossible.

2. Vocalic/Nonvocalic

When the most radical constriction does not exceed that found in the high vowels [i] and [u] and the position of the vocal cords allow the spontaneous voicing, the vocalic sounds are produced. Meanwhile, non-vocalic sounds are produced when one or both of these conditions are not satisfied.
Therefore, vocalic sounds are the voiced vowels and liquids, whereas glides, nasals, obstruents as well as voiceless vowels and liquids are not vocalic.

3. Consonantal/Nonconsonantal

Consonantal sounds are produced with a radical obstruction in the midsaggital region of the vocal tract; nonconsonatal sounds are produced without such kind of construction.Further, the term consonantal refers to sounds that produced by a narrowed in the oral cavity-either total occlussion or frication. Stops, fricatives, affricates, nasals, and liquids are [+consonantal], while vowels and semivowels, withou ths degree of narrowing are [-consonantal].

4. Syllabic/Nonsyllabic

In general, vowels are [+syllabic], whereas consonants are [-syllabic]. This features are also necessary for differentating syllabic nasal and liquids ([+syllabic]).
A segment is viewed as syllabic if it constitutes the nucleus or peak of syllable.

A set of features makes explicit claims concerning the relationship of different segment types. The more feature values shared by different classes, more they have in common. Thus, classes which differ in only one feature value are more closely related than those which differ in two or three feature values.

B. Cavity Feature

Cavity feature refers to place of articulation. They specify where in the vocal tract modification of the air stream take place in the production of particular sounds.

1. Primary Structures

1.1 Coronal/Noncoronal

Coronal sounds are produced with the blade of the tongue raised from its neutral position; noncoronal sounds are produced with blade of the tongue is in the neutral position.
Dental, alveolar, and palato-alveolar consonants are coronal, as are the liquids articulated with the blade of the tongue. The uvulars, glides, retroflex vowels are noncoronal.

1.2 Anterior/Nonanterior

The sounds that are produced with an obstruction that is located in front of the palato-alveolar region of the mouth is called anterior sounds. Nonanterior sounds are produced without such kind of construction.
Vowels which are produced without construction in the oral cavity are anterior sounds, as well as consonants and liquids. Palato-alveolar, retroflex, palatal, velar, uvular, or pharyngeal are therefore nonanterior, whereas labials, dentals, and alveolas are anterior.

C. Feature Related to the Body of the Tongue

Another features that related to the position of the body of the tongue are deal with the features high, low, and back. Using the binary feature, we can devide them high-nonhigh, low-nonlow, and back-nonback.
High sounds are produced by raising the body of the tongue above the level that it occupied in the neutral position.; nonhigh sounds are produced without such a raising of the tongue body.

Low-nonlow sounds are produced by lowering the body of the tongue below the level that it occupies in the neutral position, nonllow sound are produced without such kind of lowering of the body of the tongue.
Meanwhile, back sounds are produced by retracting the body of the tongue from the neutral position; nonback sounds are produced without such a restraction from the neutral position.

D. Rounded-Unrounded

Rounded sounds are sounds that are produced with a narrowing of the lip; unrounded sounds are produced without such kind of narrowing.
All classes of sounds may manifest rounding. In glides and nonlow vowels, rounding is commonly correlated with the feature ‘back’: sounds that are also round, those that are nonback are nonround.
The degree of rounding is always determinable from other features. In the vowels and glides it is corelated with the maximum degree of constriction in the oral cavity. Glides and high vowels have most rounding; low vowels, least.

E. Distributed- nondistributed

Distributed sounds are produced with a constriction that extents for a considerable distance along the direction of the air flow; nondistibuted sounds are produced with a constriction that extends only for a short distance in this directon.

 

English Consonants and Vowels

 Distinctive Features

An alternate way to analyze sounds makes use of the concept of binary or paired features (a concept that we will encounter again in semantics in Chapter 6) where there is an opposition between the presence or absence of a feature in a particular sound. A notation is used for features in which the name of the feature is capitalized and enclosed in square brackets, the presence of the feature is indicated by a plus sign and its absence by a minus sign. For example, if we consider the features of voicing and nasality: /t/ is [–VOICE] [–NASAL] /d/ is [+VOICE] [–NASAL] /n/ is [+VOICE] [+NASAL] Sometimes, a sound may or may not have a particular feature and is hence ±, e.g.: /d/ is [–SYLLABIC] /æ/ is [+SYLLABIC] /n/ is [±SYLLABIC] Sounds are analyzed in terms of a unique set, or bundle, of features. Each sound is distinguished from every other sound by a least one feature, e.g.:        /b/           /m/        [+VOICE]           [+VOICE]        [+LABIAL]           [+LABIAL]        [–NASAL]           [+NASAL] The sounds of a language can be arranged in a grid or matrix, in which the features are listed along one axis and the sounds along the other, as we shall see below. Phonological features are assumed to be universal; that is, there exists only a limited number of features, and languages select among the possible features and combine them in language-specific ways. The distinctiveness of the features lies in the fact that they combine both articulatory and acoustic information. In the speech situation, there is a balance between the needs of the hearer, who perceives only those features necessary for deciphering the sounds (overlooking many other features), and the needs of the speaker, who for ease of articulation often omits features of sounds. Distinctive features are, thus, those features required by both speaker and hearer. While the inventory of features is continually undergoing revision, we may identify the following features of consonants, many of which we have encountered before:   [CONSONANTAL]   made with closutrre in the vocal tract greater than that necessary for glides, resulting in an impediment in the flow of air   [SONORANT]   involving a regular pattern of vibration and lack of "noise", musical sounds that can be sung or held on pitch   [SYLLABIC]   functioning as the nucleus of a syllable and potentially carrying stress   [CONTINUANT]   made with incomplete closure in the oral cavity   [NASAL]   made with the velum lowered   [LATERAL]   made with the lateral flow of air   [VOICE]   made with vibration of the vocal cords   [SIBILANT]   made with a groove or trough along the center line of the tongue, resulting in a strong hissing sound   [DELAYED RELEASE]   made with the slow release of a stop For place of articulation, in order to establish a binary opposition, we must introduce some distinctions that differ from the traditional places such as alveolar or velar:   [ANTERIOR]              made on or in front of the alveolar ridge   [CORONAL]              made with the tip or blade of the tongue raised   [HIGH]              made with the tongue raised in the palatal or velar regions   [BACK]              articulated behind the palatal region See the feature grid for English consonants below. p b m t d n k g ŋ f v s z θ ð ʃ ʒ tʃ dʒ l r y w h ʔ [SYLLABIC] – – ± – – ± – – ± – – – – – – – – – – ± ± – – – – [CONSONANTAL] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + – – – – [SONORANT] – – + – – + – – + – – – – – – – – – – + + + + – – [NASAL] – – + – – + – – + – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – [ANTERIOR] + + + + + + – – – + + + + + + – – – – + + – – – – [CORONAL] – – – + + + – – – – – + + + + + + + + + + – – – – [HIGH] – – – – – – + + + – – – – – – – – – – – – + + – – [BACK] – – – – – – + + + – – – – – – – – – – – – – + – – [CONTINUANT] – – – – – – – – – + + + + + + + + – – + + + + + – [DELAYED RELEASE] – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – + + – – – – – – [SIBILANT] – – – – – – – – – – – + + – – + + + + – – – – – – [VOICE] – + + – + + – + + – + – + – + – + – + + + + + – – [LATERAL] – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – + – – – – – Note that all consonants except the glides and /h/ are [+CONSONANTAL]. Nasals, liquids, and approximants are [+SONORANT], while fricatives, liquids, and approximants are [+CONTINUANT]. The four major classes of consonants can be differentiated as follows:   stops   [–CONTINUANT]       nasals   [–CONTINUANT]      [–SONORANT]      [+SONORANT]               fricatives   [+CONTINUANT]       approximants   [+CONTINUANT]      [–SONORANT]      [+SONORANT] In respect to place of articulation, labials, labiodentals, dentals, and alveolars are [+ANTERIOR]; and dentals, alveolars, alveolopalatals are [+CORONAL]. A way of grouping consonants according to features is as follows: For vowels, the following features may be identified, which are used along with the place features [HIGH] and [BACK]: [LOW]      made with the tongue lowered from the neutral, central position [ROUND]      produced with lip rounding [TENSE]      articulated with increased tension in the tongue [REDUCED]      /ə/ See the feature grid for the basic English vowels below:    i ɪ e ɛ æ ə ʌ u ʊ o ɔ ɑ [HIGH] + + – – – – – + + – – – [LOW] – – – – + – – – – – – + [BACK] – – – – – + + + + + + + [ROUND] – – – – – – – + + + + + [TENSE] + – + – – – – + – + ± + [REDUCED] – – – – – + – – – – – – Note that vowels are all [+VOCALIC] (an open oral cavity with voicing) as well as [–CONSONANTAL, +SONORANT, +VOICE, +CONTINUANT]. The diphthongs /eɪ, ɪu, aɪ, aʊ, oʊ, ɔɪ/ cannot be distinguished by these features but must be treated as a combination of vowel + glide. A way of grouping vowels according to features is as follows: