Irish palatalisation and the representation of place features

Abstract

The structural relationship of the primary/consonantal place features and the secondary/vowel place features has been the focus of much recent work in geometrical and hierarchical feature theories. Sagey (1986), Halle (1986), Selkirk (1988, 1991a, b) and others propose representations in which the secondary/vowel place features are structurally dependent on primary/consonantal place features, while Archangeli & Pulleyblank (1987), Steriade (1987), Clements (1989, 1991), Hume (1990, 1992) and Odden (1991) argue for the structural independence of primary/consonantal and secondary/vowel place features, though to different degrees.