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ChapterOne
thattheclassincludingbothtypesofsegmentsisrankedhighintheconstraint
hierarchy,andthusitisrelativelyrarelyviolated.
Finally,notethatthecomplexityofthephonologicalpaterningofarticulato-
rilydistantclassesandthedifcultyinexplainingtheissuehavemadesomere-
searcherscometoanegativeconclusion.Ladefoged(2005),forinstance,admits
thatthefeatureswhichareneededtoexplainnumeroussegmentalcontrasts
generatemoreclassesthanareactuallyfoundinnaturallanguage.Flemming’s
(2005)OTanalysisofnaturalclassesendswiththeremarkthattherestrictions
onthesetofsegmentswhichpaterntogetherfollowfromthenatureoftheset
ofuniversalconstraintsratherthanfromthefeatureset.Similarly,Mielke(2008)
arguesthatmanyclassesinvolvedinsoundpaternssimplycannotbedefined
bythegenerallyrecognizedfeatures.Heproposestosolvethisimpassebydis-
tinguishingaphonologicallyactiveclasswhichisfeatureindependentfrom
aphoneticallynaturalone–aclassofsoundsthatshareoneormoredistinc-
tivefeatures.Mielke(2008)arguesfurtherthatthissplitisdictatedbytheillu-
sioncreatedbymostsegmentaltheoriesthatarticulatoryclassesareimplicitly
equatedwithphonologicallyactiveclasses.
Inoursearchforthesolutiontothelabial-dorsalinteractions,wedefinitely
opposetheabove-mentionedpessimisticapproach.However,ithasnowbecome
evidentthatadiscussionwhichaimsattheexplanationofthephonological
paterningoflabialsanddorsalsmustincludeothermajorplacefeatures.This
seemsinevitable,becauseapartfromlabials,velarsarealsoreportedtointeract
withotherdorsalconsonants,palatalsand,toamuchlesserextent,withcoro-
nals,too.
Theremainderofthischapterprovidesanoverviewofavailablerepresenta-
tionsoflabialsanddorsalsputforwardbyvariouspastandpresenttheories
ofsegmentalstructure.Westartwiththedistinctivefeaturetheoryandthe
acousticfeature[grave]introducedbyJakobsonetal.(1952).
3.Labialsanddorsalsinclassicaldistinctivefeaturetheories
3.1Auditory-acousticfeatures(Jakobson,FantandHalle1952)
Initsearlyversion,thefeaturetheoryproposedjusttwelvedistinctivefeatures,
whichweredefinedmostlyinauditory-acousticterms,thatis,fromthehearer’s
pointofview.Althoughtheacousticunderpinningoffeatureswasrecognized
asadominantone,therewasalsoasmallergroupoffeatureswhichpossessed
articulatorycorrelates(Jakobsonatal.1952;JakobsonandHalle1956).Thisset
ofdistinctivefeatureswasbelievedtobesufcienttocoverallcross-linguistic
contrasts.
