O gradience, where art thou? Examining backness harmony in Uyghur

Abstract Discreteness of representations is a core commitment of classical generative phonology. However, one of the biggest arguments levelled against discreteness has come from the phenomenon of incomplete neutralisation – where the output of some phonological process on a feature [F] is phonetically distinct from underived [±F]. A sizeable body of work has contended that incomplete neutralisation crucially undermines the sufficiency of discrete representations, arguing instead for the inclusion of gradient representations. In this article, we investigate backness harmony in Uyghur, evaluating recent claims of incomplete neutralisation. Results from two production studies replicate findings from previous work on the language, but we show that, with proper experimental controls, the pattern is derivable without recourse to gradient phonological representations. We then discuss the conceptual and theoretical challenges for gradient representations along with criteria for true phonologically relevant gradience.