Harmony Drivers: No Disagreement Allowed

Abstract

'Harmony' is a widely attested pattern in natural language, a configuration where within some domain all eligible anchors for some feature bear the same feature value. Typically, a harmony system exhibits a choice between two feature values. Either all anchors within some domain D bear the feature value F or all anchors within D bear the opposite value G. Depending on the theory of features and harmony, both harmonic values may be overtly specified or one may be indicated by the absence of featural specification. In exploring here the option of deriving harmony by prohibiting feature disharmony, the functional motivation is that the resetting of articulatory targets costs the grammar.