Linguistic Inquiry
Since Clements (1985) introduced feature geometry, four major innovations have been proposed: Unified Feature Theory, Vowel-Place Theory, Strict Locality, and Partial Spreading. We set out the problems that each innovation encounters and propose a new model of feature geometry and feature spreading that is not subject to these problems. Of the four innovations, the new model—Revised Articulator Theory (RAT)—keeps Partial Spreading, but rejects the rest. RAT also introduces a new type of unary feature—one for each articulator—to indicate that the articulator is the designated articulator of the segment.