Re: Phonemes
- From: "Greg" <greg@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: 18 Jun 2005 05:15:24 -0700
David Wright Sr. wrote:
>...
> Has any work ever been done to determine a theoretical maximum?
The theoretical maximum is 2^17, following the feature theory
developed in generative phonology by Morris Halle and others.
The figure "17" for the power of two is somewhat flexible. It's
my best recollection of the number of distinctive features
proposed in _The Sound Pattern of English_ by Chomsky and Halle.
The claim that the features are phonologically binary (so that it
is "two" that should be raised to a power) has been much discussed.
Opinions vary. The claim that the features are independent (so
that all 2^17 should be possible) is discussed in _Speech Sounds
and Features_ by Gunnar Fant. That is also controversial. (All
of linguistics is controversial.)
Greg
.
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