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This paper argues that (1) not all neutral tones are derived from their full tone counterparts; (2) neutral tones should be classified into three categories: toneless,detonic, and atonic; (3) this typology governs the interaction between de-stress and tone loss; and (4) the tonal mapping of neutral tone results from tone assimilation -- the tonal features of the preceding tone is spread left-to-right to the neutral tone.
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Xiaonan Susan Shen (1992) studied this question.
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