Introduction

In this chapter, I briefly discuss the background of the theory that is proposed in this book, which I see as a development of DP, with which it thus necessarily shares a number of properties which will be presented in some detail, both with respect to the DP proposals for elements, and with respect to its basic principles. My model also has certain properties in common with varieties of GP, which I will also discuss in this chapter.

Monovalency, grouping, dependency and contrastivity

In the segmental domain, DP introduced at least six important innovations, several of which date back to early publications by John Anderson and Charles Jones (Anderson & Jones 1972, 1974):

(1) Segmental structure:

• Phonological primes (here called ‘elements’) are monovalent.

• Phonological primes are organised into intra-segmental classes (called ‘gestures’).

• Combinations of primes and of classes enter into a head-dependency relationship.

• The same phonological primes figure in the representation of vowels and consonants.

• Some primes may occur in more than one class.

• Representations are minimally specified.

We must note that these proposals are largely independent and, as such, may be shared (in part) with other approaches. The following sections deal with specific, characteristic topics in DP: monovalency (§ 2.2.1), the idea that vowel structure is organised in a triangular way (§ 2.2.2), segment-internal grouping (§ 2.2.3), developments in DP (§ 2.2.4) and minimal specification and polysystematicity (§ 2.2.5).

Monovalency

The claim that phonological primes are single-valued has a weak and a strong variant. In the weak form the claim is that only some features are single-valued. For example, various scholars have suggested that [round] is single-valued (Steriade 1987c). Itô & Mester (1986) have argued that [voice] is a single-valued feature. Goldsmith (1985, 1987) goes further and uses a system in which both [round] and [low] are single-valued, with the proviso that the scope of [low] is extended to include mid vowels. In his system, however, [back] is binary. The strong form of the claim implies that all features are single-valued. This position has been defended most extensively by proponents of DP and GP (AE; KLV85).