ABSTRACT
The concept of neutralization, and the theory related to it, derives originally from the Prague School of phonology which flourished in the 1930s; it is particularly associated with Trubetskoy. Mainly through the influence of another member, Jakobson, neutralization and the ideas which developed along with it, such as marking, have been incorporated into generative phonology, and have played a prominent role in more recent developments, particularly in connection with language universals. Neutralization, as a concept, must be distinguished from defective distribution, to which it is superficially similar. Defective distribution means that a phoneme is found in some environments but not others, its distribution is incomplete. The concept of marking and its values 'marked' and 'unmarked' is a way of showing that, when two linguistic elements are related in some way, the relationship may not be between 'equals', but that one element is somehow more 'basic' than the other.
