Features

Features are a central concept in linguistic analysis. They are the basic building blocks of linguistic units such as words. For many linguists they offer the most revealing way to explore the nature of language. Familiar features are Number (singular plural dual ) Person (1st 2nd 3rd) and Tense (present past ...). Features have a major role in contemporary linguistics from the most abstract theorizing to the most applied computational applications yet little is firmly established about their status. They are used but are little discussed and poorly understood. In this unique work Corbett brings together two lines of research: how features vary between languages and how they work. As a result the book is of great value to the broad range of perspectives of those who are interested in language.