Re: THEORY: Feature geometry for uvulars/pharyngeals

Hi,

Joe a écrit :

>>But [pharyngeal] is just a label. Maybe [guttural] is more appropriate,
>>though I personnally prefer [pharyngeal]. It's just like saying that [i]
>>is [coronal] : it doesn't make sense on its own, but it is a rough label
>>that allows you to have a unified treatment of consonants and vowels.
>
>
> I think you're thinking of Laryngeals.  Pharyngeals are a specific place in
> the mouth.
I am not ;). In several element-based frameworks, the [pharyngeal]
feature is responsible for "A-ness" (backness and/or openness) so that
[e] is some kind of "pharyngeal [i]", while [E] is some kind of palatal
[a] (both have |I| and |A|, the former is more |I|, and the latter more
|A|). So I see no problem in saying that uvulars are somehow related to
pharyngeals (and this is a common view in phonology, see Dependency
Phonology or Government Phonology).
Moreover Clements (who uses a geometrical framework), in an article
written in 1993 (a translation of the title is _Consonants and Vowels
Place of Articulation : a Unified Theory_, as it appeared in a french
book) uses the binary feature [+ radical] for low vowels ([a] and [Q])
and pharyngal consonants. So there is no problem with using rough labels
: the point is that they must allow you to distinguish all places of
articulation.

Regards,

Julien.