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Feature Predictability and Underspecification: Palatal Prosody in Japanese Mimetics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

R. Armin Mester  and
Junko Itô
R. Armin Mester*
Affiliation:
University of Texas, Austin
Junko Itô*
Affiliation:
University of California, Santa Cruz
*
Department of Linguistics, Calhoun Hall 501, University of Texas, Austin, TX 78712
Board of Studies in Linguistics, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064
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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.

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Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 65 , Issue 2 , June 1989 , pp. 258 - 293
Copyright
Copyright © 1989 by Linguistic Society of America

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