Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

I adopt, for purposes of modeling the effect of the phonetic component in creating
the vowel realization patterns which precede the phonologization of merger, Keating’s
(1996) view of phonetic target windows. Here Keating uses target windows of varying
widths to model phonetic underspecification as a matter of degree, a refinement of her
earlier all-or-nothing approach to the subject (Keating 1988a). Rather than assuming that
there either is a target specified for a given phonetic feature or there is not (in which case
values must be interpolated as a path between specifications for surrounding segments),
specifications of varying degrees of strictness can be modeled by assuming narrower or
broader target windows as the case warrants. Keating (1996: 274) describes these target
windows as “ranges of permitted values” , where a narrow window represents a precise
target with little room for contextual variation, while a wide window indicates a more
loosely specified target, such that more contextual variation in its realization is tolerated.
The widest possible window corresponds to phonetic underspecification, where targets
must simply be interpolated on the basis of the specifications of neighboring target values
along the relevant dimensions. Thus, in cases where the F1 value for the low vowel /a/ is
seen not to vary significantly with the duration of the vowel in question (despite the
increased effort required to reach the more open target articulations of non-high vowels
within periods of shorter duration), we can assume a narrow target window for F1 values.
Where F1 lowers significantly as /a/ raises toward [] in contexts of reduced vowel
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