Featuralness

Featuralness in linguistics refers to the degree to which phonological information is encoded and organized by binary features rather than by whole segment identities. In feature-based theories, phonemes are viewed as bundles of features such as [+consonantal], [+voiced], [+nasal], [+continuant], and [+labial]. Featuralness concerns how well a language’s contrasts align with these features and how much of its phonology can be explained by shared feature specifications.

Key ideas include:

- Distinction between features and segments. Featural analyses seek to account for phonological patterns—such as assimilation, harmony, or morphophonemic alternations—by reference to underlying feature values rather than arbitrary segment changes.

- Natural classes. Features define groups of sounds that behave similarly in processes like assimilation or deletion, enabling broad generalizations across a language.

- Learnability and perception. A feature-based representation can support generalization across related sounds, aiding language acquisition and perceptual categorization.

- Cross-linguistic variation. Some languages employ a large, productive set of distinctive features, while others rely on a smaller set or on allophonic distinctions that are not phonemic.

Applications and examples:

- Voicing contrasts, where a phoneme pair differs in the feature [+voice].

- Place and manner of articulation can be analyzed with features like [+consonantal], [+sonorant], and place-related features to predict patterns such as assimilation.

- Vowel harmony or consonant harmony often involves spreading features like [+back], [+round], or [+nasal] rather than copying complete segments.

Limitations and debates:

- Not all phonological phenomena map neatly to a fixed feature set, and some researchers argue for alternative representations, such as autosegmental or segmental-only analyses.

- The usefulness of featural analyses can vary by language and theoretical orientation.