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Simplicity, descriptive adequacy, and binary features

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2026

Heles Contreras
Heles Contreras*
Affiliation:
University of Washington
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Abstract

Adherence to the binary principle in phonology conflicts with the simplicity criterion proposed by Halle, in the sense that rules which are intuitively more general are not consistently simpler than less general rules. This, together with the counter-intuitive nature of rules for vowel shift and pitch raising and lowering when formulated in binary terms, suggests the need for abandoning the binary principle. Multivalued features seem to offer a solution to these inadequacies without introducing any additional complications.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 45 , Issue 1 , March 1969 , pp. 1 - 8
Copyright
Copyright © 1969 by Linguistic Society of America

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