Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

stress, we might imagine that final lengthening would actually attract final stress, rather
than the reverse. Hock (1999: 22-24), by contrast, discusses accent retractions from final
syllables (in Baltic in particular) as a function of the monolithic final weakening he
proposes. Essentially, he views accent retraction as a consequence of some degree of
"segmental attrition" in final syllables, in some cases leading to the deletion of final
vowels (as in certain Lithuanian dialects, and Latvian as noted above). Given the above
discussion concerning the phonetics of domain-final syllables (assuming the retraction
trends to have originated in larger domains, and not phrase-internally), whatever
segmental attrition may be giving rise to accent retractions is most likely the result of the
final drop in amplitude and F0 (possibly with attendant devoicing or creak), which have
been seen to take place even in the presence of substantial final lengthening. A potential
prediction arising from this characterization of final position is that languages with
strongly duration-cued stress (such as Russian) should be less subject to stress retraction
or final stress avoidance, these latter being more characteristic of languages in which
stress is cued more saliently by, e.g. F0 contours. Crosslinguistic investigation of the
correlation of accent type and non-finality (particularly in Balto-Slavic) may yield telling
results in the future .
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