More on Auxiliary Reduction in English. Montreal Working Papers in Linguistics, Vol. 3.

This paper attempts to show that Zwicky's rule of Auxiliary Reduction is an incorrect analysis of the contraction of auxiliaries in English; and that the phonological processes involved are not as complicated as Zwicky makes them out to be. A simpler explanation is offered through analyzing auxiliary reduction as a three-step process. The three steps are: (1) unstressed auxiliaries containing lax vowel must undergo the Auxiliary Vowel Reduction (AVR) which changes the vowel to a schwa; (2) the Auxiliary Glide Deletion Rule (AGD) will do away with initial [h] and some instances of initial [w]; and (3) by the rule of Auxiliary Schwa Deletion (ASD), and initial schwa obtained as a result of AVR or AGD can be deleted provided it is preceded by a [-consonantal] segment. (Author/AM)