Discover

In theoretical linguistics, 'underspecification' is a phenomenon where certain features are omitted in underlying representations. Restricted underspecification theory holds that features should only be underspecified if their values are predictable. For example, in English, all front vowels () are unrounded. It is not necessary for these phonemes to include the distinctive feature [−round], because this feature can be predicted from the presence of the feature [−back]. Radical Underspecification theory, on the other hand, also allows for traditionally binary features to be specified for only one value, where it is assumed that every segment not specified for that value has the other value. For example, instead of the features [+voice] and [−voice], only [+voice] is specified and voicelessness is taken as the default.

Contents

Bibliography

See also

Bibliography

★

★

★

★

See also

★ ''utool: The Swiss Army Knife of Underspecification'', which performs various tasks related to scope underspecification (developed within the CHORUS project at ''Saarland University'' by ''Alexander Koller'', ''Stefan Thater'', and ''Michaela Regneri'').