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CONTENTS

ESSENTIALS OF LINGUISTICS

Chapter 4: Speech Sounds in the Mind

4.3 PHONETIC SEGMENTS AND FEATURES

Each speech sound can be analyzed in terms of its phonetic features, the
parts of the sound that can each be independently controlled by the
articulators. We can represent the features of each sound using a feature
matrix, or we can use a feature matrix to represent a class of sounds that
have features in common.

CHECK YOURSELF

1. Which feature distinguishes the segments [w] and [o]?

[syllabic].

[consonant].

[LABIAL].

2. Which feature distinguishes the segments [p] and [f]?

[LABIAL].

[sonorant].

[continuant].

3. Which feature distinguishes the segments [p] and [b]?

[voice].

[LABIAL].

[continuant].

Answers

VIDEO SCRIPT

In our thinking about speech sounds so far, we’ve focused almost entirely on
segments. Segments are the individual speech sounds, each of which gets
transcribed with an individual symbol in the IPA. We’ve seen that any given
segment can influence the segments that come before and after it, through
coarticulation and other articulatory processes. And we’ve also seen that
segments can be grouped together into syllables, which we look at in more
detail in another unit. Within the grammar of any language, two different
segments might contrast with each other or might not.

So we’ve been talking as if segments are the smallest unit in speech, but in
fact, each speech segment is made up of smaller components called
features. Each feature is an element of a sound that we can control
independently. To see how features work, let’s look at a couple of examples.
We can describe the segment [b], for example, as being made up of this set
of features. First, [b] is a consonant (meaning it has some obstruction in the
vocal tract), so it gets the feature consonant indicated with a plus sign to
show that the consonant feature is present. Looking at the next feature,
sonorant, notice that it’s indicated with a minus sign, meaning that [b] is not
a sonorant. The feature sonorant, of course, has to do with sonority. We
know that stops have very low sonority because the vocal tract is completely
closed for stops, so stops are all coded as [-sonorant]. The next feature,
syllabic, tells us whether a given segment is the nucleus of a syllable or not.
Remember that the most common segments that serve as the nucleus of a
syllable are vowels, but stops certainly cannot be the nucleus, so /b/ gets
labelled as [-syllabic]. These first three features, consonant, sonorant, and
syllabic allow us to group all speech segments into the major classes of
consonants, vowels, and glides. We’ll see how in a couple of minutes.

This next set of features has to do with the manner of articulation. The
feature continuant tells us how long a sound goes on. Stops are very short
sounds; they last for only a brief moment, so [b] gets a minus sign for
continuant. We also know that [b] is not made by passing air through the
nasal cavity, so it also gets a minus sign for the feature nasal. And [b] is a
voiced sound, made with vocal folds vibrating, so it is [+voice].

The last feature we list for [b] is [LABIAL] because it’s made with the lips.
(Stay tuned for an explanation of why some features are listed in lower-case
and some in upper-case.)

This whole list of features is called a feature matrix; it’s the list of the
individual features that describe the segment [b], in quite a lot of detail!
Because features are at the phonetic level of representation, we use square
brackets when we list them. You often see a feature matrix listed with a
large pair of square brackets, like this, but we’ll just use individual square
brackets on each feature.

Now I want you to notice something. If we take this whole feature matrix
and change the value of just one feature, changing the feature voice from
plus to minus, now we’re describing a different segment, [p]: [p] has every
feature in common with [b] except for voicing. Likewise, if we take the
feature matrix for [b] and change the value of the feature continuant from
minus to plus, now we’re describing the segment [v], which has all the same
features as [b] except that it can continue for a long time because it’s a
fricative. Or if we take the feature matrix for [b] and change the feature
nasal from minus to plus, this has the effect of also changing the sonorant
feature to plus as well, because circulating air through the nasal cavity adds
sonority. Now, this feature matrix describes the properties of the segment
[m].

So each feature is something that we can control independently of the others

with our articulators. And changing just one feature is enough to change the
properties of a segment. That change might lead to a phonemic contrast
within the mental grammar of a language, or it might just result in an
allophone of the same phoneme.

It turns out that segments that have a lot of features in common tend to
behave the same way within the mental grammar of a language. And we can
use these features to group segments into natural classes that capture some
of these similarities in their behaviour.

Let’s look again at the feature matrix for /b/. If we take away the feature that
describes its place of articulation, we end up with a smaller list of features.
This smaller list describes not just a single segment, but a class of segments:
all the voiced stops. By not mentioning the place feature, we’ve allowed this
matrix to include segments from any place of articulation, as long as they
share all these other features. These three segments have all these features
in common: they’re a natural class. If we remove another feature, the voicing
feature, the natural class gets bigger: now we’ve got a feature matrix that
describes all the stops in English, including those that are [+voice] and those
that are [-voice]. So you can see that this system of features is very powerful
for describing classes of segments that have things in common. We’ll learn
more about natural classes in the next unit.

Previous: 4.2 Allophones and Predictable Variation

Next: 4.4 Natural Classes

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Essentials of Linguistics by Catherine Anderson is licensed under a Creative

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