Suppose we define the WEIGHT of MS condition C, with respect to a systematic phonemic matrix S, as the maximum number of feature specifications that could be removed from S provided only that, from the resulting reduced matrix R and the MS condition C, we be able to construct S. Clearly, if an MS condition C does not apply to a systematic phonemic matrix S, then the weight of C with respect to S is zero. If an if-then MS condition C applies to a systematic phonemic matrix S, then the weight of C with respect to S is the number of specifications in T(C), the "then" part of C [...]. The crucial idea is that the weight of an MS condition with respect to the various systematic phonemic matrices tells us how general a statement this condition makes about these matrices.
- Stanley (2004), Pag. 86-87