Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

crucial and common to all and adopted here is the view the phonetic component operates
on gradient, physical representations containing quantitative specifications for each
dimension, while the phonology is categorical, operating on abstract symbolic
representations, interpreted by the phonetics, but not necessarily having phonetic content
themselves. This interpretation process provides contextually-appropriate phonetic targets
for each feature specification in the phonology, between which a one to one relationship
is of course not assumed (a given phonological feature may receive target specifications
along a series of phonetic dimensions). In many ways this view of the phonetics-
phonology interface resembles more traditional approaches to phonetics and phonology,
which distinguish phonological processes from processes which are “just phonetic
implementation”. It differs from traditional approaches, however, in removing phonetic
content from phonology altogether, freeing the phonology from the responsibility of
reflecting naturalness in any fashion, allowing it to be truly abstract and symbolic. It also
removes from the purview of phonology the implementation of a great number of
gradient, phonetic processes previously thought to apply within that component. The
phonetics thus has increased responsibilities, generating as it must not just universal
aspects of implementation, but a broad array of language-specific patterns which cannot
be considered categorical (phonological).
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