Only by a language-particular rule can the floating melodic element "z" be anchored to a melody-bearing element. If "z" remains unassociated through-out the derivation, then it receives no phonetic realization or, equivalently, is deleted in the surface representation. The ordinary case in nontonal autosegmental system like the one to be developed for Arabic is that floating melodic elements like "z" are never anchored. I will refer to this characteristic informally as the "prohibition against many-to-one associations".
- McCarthy (2004), a pag.240