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The contrastive hierarchy in phonology 2009 Dresher.pdf - CUNY ...

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unspecified for voice (6.8a). If we rank the other way, with SONVOI above<br />

Licens<strong>in</strong>g, then a sonorant will be forced to have a voice specification (6.8b).<br />

(6.8) Rank<strong>in</strong>g and underspecification<br />

a. License >> Redundancy<br />

Candidate License SONVOI<br />

m<br />

|<br />

[voiced]<br />

m *<br />

*!<br />

b. Redundancy >> License<br />

Candidate SONVOI License<br />

m<br />

|<br />

[voiced]<br />

m *!<br />

While this is no doubt true, the conclusion is that this theory makes no<br />

predictions about whether a redundant feature will or will not be specified <strong>in</strong><br />

any given case. Like Radical Underspecification, it predicts only that a feature<br />

may be absent if it is redundant. If underspecification is <strong>in</strong>deed essentially<br />

arbitrary, then this is the best we can do. But we could have done the same <strong>in</strong> a<br />

derivational theory as well: we can simply stipulate the underly<strong>in</strong>g specifications<br />

of each phoneme, allow<strong>in</strong>g some to be more fully specified and others to be<br />

underspecified as required.<br />

*<br />

225

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