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

hierarchy is independently needed, there is no further rationale for the pairwise
method, since the hierarchy can do all the work by itself.
2.5.4. The problem of too few minimal pairs
In the type of case discussed above, the pairwise approach can be salvaged
(ignoring violations of the Distinctness Condition) by removing features (that is,
appealing to a feature hierarchy for this limited purpose) until a minimal set of
features remains. But this approach fails in more spectacular ways when faced
with inventories that use a minimal set of features whose members do not fill the
space of feature values in the right way. In such cases no feature may be
removed from the set of relevant features specifying the inventory, but there are
still not a sufficient number of minimal pairs to fuel the Pairwise Algorithm.
Consider again the common five-vowel system in (2.19), this time without
the feature [round]. According to the pairwise method, this five-vowel system,
fully specified for the features [high], [low], and [back] in (2.25a), would be
underspecified as in (2.25b).
(2.25) Five-vowel system, features [high], [low], [back]
a. Full specifications
i e a o u
high + – – – +
low – – + – –
back – – + + +
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