2005/08/01 by Jeff Mielke · 192 citations
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Ambiguity #Ambivalence #Artificial intelligence #Computer science #Feature (linguistics) #History #Linguistic Variation and Morphology #Linguistics #Natural (archaeology) #Philosophy #Phonetics and Phonology Research #Psychology #Situated #Social psychology #Subject (documents) #Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation
paper · doi:10.1017/s0952675705000539
published in Phonology 22(2), 169-203 (Cambridge University Press)
openalex publication_date 2005/08/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Ambivalent segments are speech sounds whose cross-linguistic patterning is especially variable, creating contradictions for theories of universal distinctive features. This paper examines lateral liquids, whose [continuant] specification has been the subject of controversy because of their ability to pattern both with continuants and with non-continuants, and because phonetically they are situated in the contested ground between two different articulatory definitions for the feature [continuant]. Evidence from a survey of sound patterns in 561 languages shows that lateral liquids, like nasals, pattern with continuants about as often as with non-continuants. Ambivalent phonological behaviour is argued to be natural and expected for phonetically ambiguous segments in a theory of emergent distinctive features where features are the result of sound patterns, rather than the other way around.