Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

Acknowledgements
The thanks I owe to my committee are on a scale so vast I’m not really sure where
to begin. Over the last however-long-it-has-been, they have all shared with me enormous
kindness, patience and wisdom. Alan Timberlake shared his knowledge of everything
Slavic and his keen thinking at crucial moments throughout the development of this
work. Larry Hyman was generous with his ideas, as well as with his experience and his
endless enthusiasm. (How many discussions with him have begun, “Too bad you don’t
have a chapter on...”!) Andrew Garrett has been helpful most recently in keeping a tight
rein both on my prose style and on my driving. Over the long term what I have
appreciated most has been his remarkable gift for seeing exactly what (if anything) is
interesting and important about virtually any issue. Additionally, he has provided
inspiration by example, both in his teaching and in his research endeavors. Sharon
Inkelas has been the perfect advisor in so many ways – not only because of the lavish
Turkish feasts at her house over the years, but also because of the tremendous clarity and
insight of her thought. Without her constant help and guidance I could never have
succeeded in completing this project.
Outside my committee, many people have been subjected to far more of this
dissertation than I suspect they ever bargained for. Dasha Kavitskaya listened with
patience and understanding to more than her share of half-baked theories and long-
winded lamentations. She’s been a fine colleague and a true friend this whole time. Eddie
Cushman has been a source of real support for me all the while too, as has Suzanne
v