In several three cell paradigms, it has been observed that one
logically conceivable pattern – ABA under some arrangement of cells – is
unattested. Existing approaches assume that such *ABA generalizations
provide evidence for feature inventories which are restricted to features that
stand in containment relations, and are thus subject to Pāṇinian rule order.
We present a novel approach to *ABA generalizations that derives from
general properties of feature-based morphology. To this end, we develop a
formal account of the widespread view that morphological paradigms derive
from rules that relate abstract features from an inventory to morphological
exponents. We demonstrate that the feature-based view restricts the space
of typological patterns even without any further assumptions. We show furthermore
that the feature-based theory derives *ABA as a special case of a
broader class of generalizations if the number of features in the inventory
must be minimal, and that these generalizations arise under a variety of general
assumptions about feature-algebras (extrinsically ordered or Pāṇinian
and with or without feature intersection). We discuss which explanation
might be correct for actual cases of *ABA constraints, and we explore the
consequences of the feature-based general approach for a range of paradigm
sizes including those with more than three cells.