In attempting to understand language, a central notion is features. Examples of features are tense (present, past ...), person (1st, 2nd, 3rd), number (singular, plural, dual ...) and inflectional class (I, II, III, IV). Features have proved invaluable for analysis and description and have a major role in contemporary linguistics, right across the range of the discipline from the most abstract theorising to the most applied computational applications.
Yet little is firmly established about features: we have no readily available inventory of which features are found in the world's languages, no generally agreed account of how they operate across different components of language, and no certainty on how they interact. Features are widely used, but are little discussed and poorly understood. This is a central gap in the conceptual underpinning of much linguistic investigation.
The project aims to give a coherent account of features. The research proposed includes a synthesis of new work on the formal properties of features, particularly in morphology and syntax, and of recent progress in typology, which has provided substantial evidence on the diverse content of features (from surveys of samples of the world's 6000 languages). Through the seminar series we bring together linguists who have grappled with features as a component of theoretical models with others who have considered the range and variability of features in the world's languages. The research programme offers a step forward in understanding language, of value to researchers of widely differing persuasions.