Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

ased approaches. On the basis of experimental findings, I propose a new interpretation
of Russian vowel reduction based on the distinction between phonetic and phonological
processes outlined above. Section 2.6 discusses the ramifications of the phonologization
model of UVR typology for the question of phonetic determinism in phonology.
2.1. Unstressed vowel reduction: patterns of neutralization
Unstressed vowel reduction is a relatively familiar phenomenon in the linguistic
literature, in part surely due to its robust attestation in such thoroughly studied language
families as Romance and Slavic. A typological investigation of vowel reduction systems
yields the following clear and striking results: The vast majority of licensing asymmetries
between stressed and unstressed syllables in the languages of the world involve the
neutralize of contrasts of vowel height, nasalization, or quantity. Neutralizations of
features along any other dimensions, to the extent that they are at all are spottily attested
and usually secondary to the neutralization of height contrasts in the same system. The
enormous typological gaps this generalization leaves, including the absence of any
systems of UVR based on neutralizations of palatality, ATR, or rounding contrasts,
precisely the features most commonly involved in vowel harmony systems, must be
accounted for in any theory of vowel reduction. As we shall see below, these gaps are
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