Is there a constraint on tongue-height features?

It has been claimed by Chomsky, Halle, and others that there exists a universal constraint prohibiting the assignment of the two tongue-height features [+ low] and [+ high] to a single underlying segment. To support the proposed constraint, its proponents note that the tongue cannot be moved to lowe...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Lingua 1981-01, Vol.53 (4), p.353-369
Main Author: Krohn, Robert
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:It has been claimed by Chomsky, Halle, and others that there exists a universal constraint prohibiting the assignment of the two tongue-height features [+ low] and [+ high] to a single underlying segment. To support the proposed constraint, its proponents note that the tongue cannot be moved to lower and higher positions simultaneously. It is argued here that an observation concerning the impossibility of certain tongue movements does not provide sufficient evidence to postulate restrictions on underlying representations. What is needed is linguistic evidence, which may be obtained, for example, by evaluating alternative analyses of the same data to determine whether the constraint contributes to or detracts from the formulation of the most highly valued description. On the basis of such an examination - using English data - it is concluded that the proposed constraint prohibiting tautosegmental [+ low, + high] is invalid.
ISSN:0024-3841
1872-6135
DOI:10.1016/0024-3841(81)90047-4