Date: Tue, 7 Mar 1995 19:18:00 EST

From: "Dennis.Preston" 22709MGR[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]MSU.EDU

Subject: Re: VBE and 60 Minutes



I am puzzled why naturalness is not a good argument for the reduction of

consonant clusters. The suggestion that there would be none left simply

ignores another natural process - the formation of clusters (from, for

example, the loss of reduced and/or unstressed vowels). That natural

processes might counteract one another seems to be fairly well-established,

historically and in current micro-variation studies.

Dennis Preston preston[AT SYMBOL GOES HERE]pilot.msu.edu