Abstract The sound aspect of a linguistic sign provides the information that enables listeners and speakers to access the sign’s lexical and grammatical meaning. The channel for this information is the speech signal, through which speakers transmit and monitor the information and listeners receive it. On the basis of this rather obvious point, it would be natural to conclude that phonological features—the code in terms of which the information is compiled—should be defined in terms of auditory imagery. Yet for a generation the most influential brand of feature theory has been centred almost wholly on articulation. This is surprising; for, while articulations constitute a delivery system for linguistic information, they are not of themselves information-bearing. To echo Sapir: the perceptible form of a linguistic sign is essential and primary, the means by which it is produced secondary.
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