English Linguistics: Sound Structure

Distinctive features

This handout is a heavily reworked version of information from the companion workbook to
Brinton & Brinton (2010) available online at https://benjamins.com/sites/z.156/exercise/c2q7.
We have added and deleted information, changed the wording of definitions, and
reorganised the information to better suit the course.

So far we have categorised consonants according to the five parameters of voicing, place of
articulation, manner of articulation, oral vs. nasal, and central vs. lateral. An alternative way
of analysing these sounds uses the concept of binary features, 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 capitalised 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, using the features of voicing and nasality that we
have encountered previously:

○ /t/ is [–voice] [–nasal]

○ /d/ is [+voice] [–nasal]
○ /n/ is [+voice] [+nasal]

Sounds are analysed in terms of a unique set, or bundle, of features. Each sound is
distinguished from every other sound by at least one feature, e.g.:

○ /m/ is [+nasal] [+voice] [+anterior] [-coronal]

○ /n/ is [+nasal] [+voice] [+anterior] [+coronal]

The binary system of features is theoretically more pleasing than the multi-factor
parameters we have been using so far, but it turns out that features also have a real-world
presence. Many phonological phenomena apply to a set of different sounds that share a
single particular feature, and we would not have been able to make generalisations using the
traditional classification system.

1 Consonantal features
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 (see Table 1 below). We may identify
the following features of consonants (note that the italicized features are less important for
the purposes of this course):

○ [sonorant] made primarily with vocal fold vibration; without voicing, the sound more or
less ‘disappears’
○ [continuant] made with incomplete closure in the oral cavity
○ [anterior] made on or in front of the alveolar ridge
○ [coronal] made with the tip or blade of the tongue raised
○ [voice] made with vibration of the vocal folds
 English Linguistics: Sound Structure

○ [nasal] made with the velum lowered (see note below)

○ [lateral] made with a lateral flow of air

○ [sibilant] made with a groove or trough along the centre line of the tongue, resulting in
a strong hissing sound; you may also encounter the term [strident] for this
○ [delayed release] made with the slow release of a stop (as for the affricates /tʃ/ and
/dʒ/
○ [consonantal] made with closure in the vocal tract greater than that which is
necessary for semivowels (/j/ and /w/) or vowels, resulting in an impediment in the
flow of air
○ [syllabic] functioning as the nucleus of a syllable and potentially carrying stress

This results in the feature grid for English consonants in Table 1 below.

stops fricatives affrica approximants

tes

p b m t d n k g ŋ f v s z θ ð ʃ ʒ ʧ ʤ l r j w h ʔ

[son] - - + - - + - - + - - - - - - - - - - + + + + - -

[cont] - - - - - - - - - + + + + + + + + - - + + + + + -

[ant] + + + + + + - - - + + + + + + - - - - + + - ± - -

[cor] - - - + + + - - - - - + + + + + + + + + + + - - -

[voi] - + + - + + - + + - + - + - + - + - + + + + + - -

[nas] - - + - - + - - + - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

[lat] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + - - - - -

[sib] - - - - - - - - - - - + + - - + + + + - - - - - -

[d/rel] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - + + - - - - - -

[cons] + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + - - - -

[syll] - - ± - - ± - - ± - - - - - - - - - - ± ± - - - -

Table 1. Feature grid for English consonants.

Notes
1. We have included the feature [nasal] in the table, but this feature is actually
redundant because it can be predicted from the features [continuant] and [sonorant].
The four major classes of consonants can be differentiated as follows:
○ stops are [–continuant] [–sonorant]
○ nasals are [–continuant] [+sonorant]
○ fricatives are [+continuant] [–sonorant]
○ approximants are [+continuant] [+sonorant]
 English Linguistics: Sound Structure

2 Vocalic features
If we would apply the consonant features to vowels, every vowel would be [–consonantal,
+sonorant, +voice, +continuant]. Therefore, we need a separate set of distinctive features to
differentiate between vowels.

For vowels, the following features may be identified:

○ [high] made with the tongue raised in the palatal or velar regions

○ [low] made with the tongue lowered from the neutral, central position

○ [front] articulated in front of the palatal region

○ [back] articulated behind the palatal region

○ [round] produced with lip rounding

○ [tense] articulated with increased tension in the tongue

The feature grid for the basic monophthongs in English is given in Table 2 below.

i ɪ e ε æ ɜ ə ʌ u ʊ o ɔ ɑ ɒ

[high] + + - - - - - - + + - - - -

[low] - - - - + - - - - - - - + +

[front] + + + + + - - - - - - - - -

[back] - - - - - - - - + + + + + +

[round] - - - - - - - - + + + + - +

[tense] + - + - - + - - + - + ± + +

Table 2. Feature grid for English vowels (see notes below for additional information).

Notes
1. Mid-vowels are [-high] and [-low].
2. Central vowels are [-front] and [-back].
3. Diphthongs (e.g., /eɪ, aɪ, aʊ, oʊ, ɔɪ/) move between two vowels and can therefore be
considered a combination of the two. In the present course, we describe their
features using both their starting points and their ending points (so /oʊ/ starts out as
an /o/ and ends as an /ʊ/).
 English Linguistics: Sound Structure

References
Brinton, L. J. & Brinton, D. M. (2010). The linguistic structure of Modern English. Benjamins:
Amsterdam.