ABSTRACT
The list of distinctive features first proposed in SPE includes [vocalic]. Sounds marked as [+vocalic] are said to be 'produced with an oral cavity in which the most radical constriction does not exceed that found in the high vowels [i] and [u] and with vocal cords that are positioned so as to allow spontaneous voicing' (SPE: 302).1 Further on in the book, however, this feature is abandoned in favour of [syllabic], on the basis of the oscillating behaviour of French high vocoids with regard to the triggering of schwa and consonant deletion (see SPE: 353ff. and Milner 1967 for discussion of the French case and its implications for feature theory). The new feature [syllabic] is taken to 'characterize all segments constituting a syllabic peak' (SPE: 354). In a nutshell, consonants and lexical glides will be [ — syllabic], while vowels and derived glides will be underlyingly [ + syllabic], the relevant data thus being satisfactorily accounted for.
