Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

Abstract
Positional Neutralization: A Phonologization Approach to Typological Patterns
by
Jonathan Allen Barnes
Doctor of Philosophy in Linguistics
University of California, Berkeley
Professor Sharon Inkelas, Chair
This study investigates the typology of patterns of positional neutralization, a term
referring to systems in which, from a given set of oppositions, one structural position
licenses a wider array of contrasts than another. Patterns of positional neutralization of
vowel contrasts are surveyed in three pairs of strong and weak positions:
stressed/unstressed, final/non-final, and initial/non-initial. For each pair, regularities
involving the phonetic content of neutralization patterns are accounted for using a
phonologization-based approach to typological patterns.
In the phonologization model, phonetics influences phonology only by providing
the gradient inputs out of which categorical patterns are created by phonologization.
Perceptually ambiguous language-specific phonetic patterns are reinterpreted by listeners,
producing new phonological representations of the relevant strings. Once phonologized,
these patterns cease to be dependent on phonetic factors for their existence. Phonological
patterns are natural because the majority of them descend directly from phonetic patterns.
1