Title of the article

2.4.Base-Identity blocks hardening

I assume that the phonological markedness constraint that induces hardening to be the Obligatory Contour Principle (OCP) [fric]._⁴¹ OCP [fric] prohibits adjacent fricatives. Base-Identity, as defined in the previous section, prefers output candidates which are similar to the base. With the ranking Base-Identity >> OCP [fric], we obtain the desired output; hardening does not apply to nominal stems.
2.28

con­strai­n­ts  /tulv vo/ base: vo candidates 	Base-Identity	OCP [fric]	IDENT [cont]
tulv vo		*
tulv bo	*!		*

Base-Identity is satisfied vacuously in verbal stems since they lack a base. Being free from Base-Identity, an initial fricative now hardens to a plosive in order to circumvent an OCP violation.

2.29

con­strai­n­ts  /cxf a-/ base: ø candidates 	Base-Identity	OCP	IDENT [cont]
cxf a-		*!
cxf [q]a-			*

Since Base-Identity refers to the base and not to the input, this ranking always derives the correct output no matter of the input value. This is illustrated in the tableau below in which the verbal stem initiates with a plosive in the input (cf. Shiraishi, 2000).

2.30

con­strai­n­ts  /cxf qa-/ base: ø candidates 	Base-Identity	OCP	IDENT [cont]
cxf qa-
cxf []a-		*!	*

The present analysis correctly derives the observed output no matter of the input. There is thus no prespecification, in which input strings are fixed to take a particular form. Nor does it make use of information of category labels, a condition that was inevitable in previous descriptions in order to let hardening apply appropriately. The current analysis makes a totally different claim. There is no exception to the hardening rule (nominal stems), nor should the specific undergoer (verbal stems) be prespecified at the underlying level. Rather, the asymmetry of nominal and verbal stems follows from the existence of a base, which is an independent fact of the language. By making use of such morpho-lexical information, the current analysis accounts for the noun-verb asymmetry without appealing to language-specific stipulations.