Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

the ends of phrases. They hypothesize that, along with lengthening, decreased gestural
stiffness could also cause articulatory reduction, citing Beckman et al. (1992), Vayra and
Fowler (1992), as well work by Krakow (1993) and Vassiere (1986) showing declination
of velum height.
As described above, however, the results of Edwards, Beckman, and Fletcher’s
later study, and in fact the results of this very study of Vayra and Fowler show just the
opposite of final fade when it comes to unstressed vowels, any declination being found
only for the stressed counterparts thereof. Also, later work by Vassiere (1988)
demonstrates stronger velic closure in phrase-final syllables than in phrase-medial, again
arguing against a general phenomenon of final supralaryngeal fade. To this can be added
the work of Keating, Wright and Zhang (1999), who found increased linguopalatal
contact for phrase-final consonants in English, and of course Cho (2001), again
demonstrating the link between phrase-final lengthening and articulatory strengthening,
the later in fact specifically for lexically stressed syllables.
In sum, at least for unstressed syllables there is very little (if any) direct
articulatory evidence for supralaryngeal “final fade” , while at the same time there is an
abundance of evidence for the opposite effect: phrase-final strengthening of unstressed
syllables, and in some studies stressed syllables as well. While this casts doubt on
Johnson and Martin’s more general interpretation of their results, it still leaves the facts
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