A theory of the theory of vowels
Edoardo Cavirani, Marc Van Oostendorp
direct link: http://ling.auf.net/lingbuzz/003514
September 2017
We represent the most common vowel contrasts in a theory that allows only (recursive) embedding of sets, including the empty set. Such a theory needs neither features nor elements. We show that from such a theory we can actually derive some common properties of the element set |A, I, U|: why are there only three of them? And why does |A| behave differently from the other two? Furthermore, the theory also gives a natural place to both schwa and the completely empty nucleus. We also show how this theory is related to some earlier proposals in the literature.