Feature Predictability and Underspecification: Palatal Prosody in Japanese Mimetics

TLDR

The paper argues that phonological underspecification theories requiring the absence of all predictable feature values are problematic, being too radical for some cases and insufficient for others. The authors propose that a Theory of Privative Features better accounts for cases requiring radical underspecification, correctly predicting underspecification at both underlying and derivational levels. Evidence from Japanese mimetic vocabulary shows that palatalization prosody is a surface manifestation of an independent autosegmental micromorpheme mapped from right to left onto the root, supporting a Restricted Theory of Underspecification.

Abstract

This paper argues that theories of phonological underspecification requiring the underlying absence of all predictable values of features are doubly problematic: too radical for certain cases, not radical enough for others. Relevant evidence in favor of a Restricted Theory of Underspecification is found in the palatalization prosody operative in the mimetic (sound-symbolic) vocabulary of Japanese. It is shown that mimetic palatalization is the surface manifestation of an independent autosegmental micromorpheme mapped from right to left onto the mimetic root. We argue furthermore that cases calling for radically underspecified representations are more adequately accounted for by a Theory of Privative Features, which alone correctly predicts the desired underspecification not only underlyingly but also throughout the phonological derivation.*