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

(6.29) Implicational constraints for Classical Manchu
a. [low] The feature [low] must always be specified.
b. [+low] ⊃ [labial]
c. [–low] ⊃ [coronal]
d. [–labial] ⊃ [ATR]
e. [–coronal] ⊃ [ATR]
We now observe a redundancy between the constraints that penalize a
feature in a context and those requiring it: the contexts in which these apply are
bound to be complementary. Therefore, we can simplify the implicational
constraints to simply require the presence of a feature, as long as these are
ordered after the constraints forbidding the feature. This type of constraint can
take the form shown in (6.30).
(6.30) Specification Constraint
SPEC [F]: ‘[F] must be specified.’
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If we add such constraints en bloc after the constraints we have been using
to here, they will filter out candidates that lack required features. For example, in
(6.31) the underspecified candidates [+low], [+low, –labial], and [+low, +labial]
are eliminated because they lack features that are required in the context of
[+low]. On the other hand, the overspecified [+low, –coronal, –labial, –ATR] does
not benefit from its lack of violations of these constraints because it is already