major (adj.)

A term used by some LINGUISTS in the CLASSIFICATION of SENTENCE types to refer to the most PRODUCTIVE sentence patterns in a LANGUAGE.

In English, the SUBJECT+PREDICATE (NP+VP) pattern is the major (or FAVOURITE) sentence type, e.g. The elephant is running, A book is on the table. Other types may be referred to as MINOR.

In some models of FEATURE GEOMETRY, a term which forms part of a binary PHONOLOGICAL distinction corresponding to the PHONETIC contrast between primary and SECONDARY ARTICULATION; opposed to minor. It is argued that, in CONSONANTS involving multiple articulations, only one degree of CLOSURE is distinctive (the ‘major articulator’); the other is predictable (the ‘minor articulator’), and thus its degree of closure need not be specified in the phonological REPRESENTATION.

major class feature One of the five main dimensions of classification in Chomsky and Halle’s DISTINCTIVE FEATURE theory of PHONOLOGY (the others being CAVITY features, MANNER-OF-ARTICULATION features, SOURCE features and PROSODIC features). The term refers to the main types of sound produced by the open v. closed possibilities of VOCAL TRACT variation. There are three such features, all defined as OPPOSITIONS: SONORANT v. non-sonorant (OBSTRUENT), VOCALIC v. non-vocalic, and CONSONANTAL v. non-consonantal. Using these features, sounds can be subdivided into the major classes of VOWELS, CONSONANTS, OBSTRUENTS, SONORANTS, GLIDES and LIQUIDS.