b) Economy
In phonology, and particularly in Generative Phonology, we are often concerned to eliminate redundancy from the sound pattern of a language or to explain it by rule. Distinctive features allow the possibility of writing rules using a considerably smaller number of units than the phonemes of a language. Consider for example, a hypothetical language that has 12 consonant and 3 vowel phonemes:
p t k
b d ɡ
m n ŋ
f s ç
i u
ɑ
We could refer to all these phonemes with perhaps just 6 distinctive features - a reduction of over half the number of phoneme units which also allows natural classes to be established amongst them:
[+voice] b d ɡ m n ŋ i u ɑ
[+nasal] m n ŋ
[+high] i u k ɡ ŋ ç
[+labial] p m b u f
[+anterior] p t b d m n f s
[+cont] f s ç i u ɑ
At the same time, each phoneme is uniquely represented, as shown by the distinctive feature matrix:
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Chomsky and Halle (1968-1983)
b) Economy
In phonology, and particularly in Generative Phonology, we are often concerned to eliminate redundancy from the sound pattern of a language or to explain it by rule. Distinctive features allow the possibility of writing rules using a considerably smaller number of units than the phonemes of a language. Consider for example, a hypothetical language that has 12 consonant and 3 vowel phonemes:
p t k
b d ɡ
m n ŋ
f s ç
i u
ɑ
We could refer to all these phonemes with perhaps just 6 distinctive features - a reduction of over half the number of phoneme units which also allows natural classes to be established amongst them:
[+voice] b d ɡ m n ŋ i u ɑ
[+nasal] m n ŋ
[+high] i u k ɡ ŋ ç
[+labial] p m b u f
[+anterior] p t b d m n f s
[+cont] f s ç i u ɑ
At the same time, each phoneme is uniquely represented, as shown by the distinctive feature matrix:
In phonology, and particularly in Generative Phonology, we are often concerned to eliminate redundancy from the sound pattern of a language or to explain it by rule. Distinctive features allow the possibility of writing rules using a considerably smaller number of units than the phonemes of a language. Consider for example, a hypothetical language that has 12 consonant and 3 vowel phonemes:
p t k
b d ɡ
m n ŋ
f s ç
i u
ɑ
We could refer to all these phonemes with perhaps just 6 distinctive features - a reduction of over half the number of phoneme units which also allows natural classes to be established amongst them:
[+voice] b d ɡ m n ŋ i u ɑ
[+nasal] m n ŋ
[+high] i u k ɡ ŋ ç
[+labial] p m b u f
[+anterior] p t b d m n f s
[+cont] f s ç i u ɑ
At the same time, each phoneme is uniquely represented, as shown by the distinctive feature matrix:
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