Blurb:

This chapter illustrates a Relational Network (RN) approach to phonology through a description of Russian obstruent onsets. Russian features a complicated syllable structure, the obstruent portion of the onset being its most complex part. Building on related RN accounts, the overarching description introduced herein circumvents some arbitrary and unjustified limitations in previous structuralist and generative approaches. Moreover, numerous analytical problems in the classical generative perspectives of underspecification and feature geometry are identified and avoided. The present RN characterization, presented in both algebraic and network diagram form, solves such problems through a higher level of generalization which can be interpreted within an overall model of the individual’s linguistic system.