Definition:
Distinctive features are the minimal phonological properties that distinguish one phoneme from another within a language. Rather than treating phonemes as indivisible units, distinctive feature theory decomposes each sound into a set of binary properties — each either present [+] or absent [−].
Origins
The theory was formalised by Roman Jakobson in the 1940s–50s and later refined by Noam Chomsky and Morris Halle in The Sound Pattern of English (1968), which established the SPE feature set still commonly used today.
Common Features
| Feature | [+] | [−] |
|---|---|---|
| voice | voiced: /b/, /d/, /g/ | voiceless: /p/, /t/, /k/ |
| nasal | nasal: /m/, /n/, /ŋ/ | oral: all others |
| continuant | fricatives, approximants | stops, nasals, affricates |
| sonorant | vowels, nasals, liquids, glides | obstruents |
| coronal | produced with tongue tip/blade | labials, velars |
Why It Matters for Language Learning
Distinctive features explain natural classes — groups of sounds that behave similarly in phonological rules. They also explain why learners from certain L1s systematically confuse particular L2 sounds: the [±voice] distinction is absent in some languages, so learners neutralise English /p/–/b/ and /t/–/d/ pairs.