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On certain evidence for the feature [grave]

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 March 2026

William Pagliuca  and
Richard Mowrey
William Pagliuca
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Buffalo
Richard Mowrey
Affiliation:
State University of New York at Buffalo
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Abstract

Supposed evidence for acoustic assimilations attributable to the feature [grave], presented in Hyman 1973 and Vago 1976, is shown to be evidence merely of deficient modeling of articulation in the SPE articulatory-feature system—rather than, as Hyman and Vago assume, proof for the acoustic basis of the processes they cite. Straightforward articulatory explanations are available for all the evidence adduced, but they are not expressible in the SPE framework. The necessary refinements of such a system of articulatory description are shown to require more than adjustments of the feature inventory.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Language , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , September 1980 , pp. 503 - 514
Copyright
Copyright © 1980 by Linguistic Society of America

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