The function of language is to transmit information from speakers to listeners. This book investigates an aspect of linguistic sound patterning that has traditionally been assumed to interfere with this function – neutralization, a conditioned limitation on the distribution of a language's contrastive values. The book provides in-depth, nuanced and critical analyses of many theoretical approaches to neutralization in phonology and argues for a strictly functional characterization of the term: neutralizing alternations are only function-negative to the extent that they derive homophones, and most surprisingly, neutralization is often function-positive, by serving as an aid to parsing. Daniel Silverman encourages the reader to challenge received notions by carefully considering these functional consequences of neutralization. The book includes a glossary, discussion points and lists of further reading to help advanced phonology students consolidate the main ideas and findings on neutralization.

The theory of neutralization and the archiphoneme is well known to have been expounded by the Prague School. It is now being fully accepted and practised by A. Martinet and his associates, to whom Akamatsu refers as the neo-Prague School. The objective is to propose a maximally functionalist theory of neutralization and the archiphoneme by submitting to critical discussion from a functional point of view all the principal notions pertaining to this theory in its traditionally professed form. The author comes up with a theory of neutralization and the archiphoneme which is fundamentally based on but is clearly different from that which is normally associated with the Prague School and the neo-Prague School.

Understanding neutralization is particularly relevant to an appreciation of the interaction between a virus and its antibody-synthesizing host since it is likely that viruses and the antibody system have evolved in response to reciprocally imposed selective pressures. Neutralization of viruses which only infect non-antibody-synthesizing hosts, while of considerable interest from of points of view is de facto without any such evolutionary signifi a number cance. In this second category are viruses of plants, invertebrates, vertebrates below fish in the evolutionary scale which do not synthesize antibody and most bacteria. Viruses of organisms parasitic on or commensal with antibody synthesizing vertebrates, such as enteric bacteria, protozoa or metazoan parasites, will be in contac, with antibody at some stage of their existence, and arthropod-borne viruses which have a higher vertebrate as second host are obviously bona fide members of the first category. There is an urgent need to understand the principles by which antibodies inactivate virus infectivity since, at present, we are unable to rationally construct effective vaccines against new agents like the human immuno deficiency viruses or to improve existing vaccines. The intention of this volume is to comprehensively review neutralization and where possible to construct a unifying theory which can be tested by experimentation.

Multiple dysfunctions take place in the B cell compartment during HIV-1 infection, comprising depletion of resting memory B cells carrying serological memory to vaccines and previously met pathogens. In addition, population of B cells characterized by the expression of exhaustion markers are enlarged during HIV-1 infection. Antibodies with the capacity to neutralize a broad range of HIV-1 isolates can be detected only in a minority of infected patients, after a year or more from acute infection. An open question is whether the inability of producing neutralizing HIV-1 antibodies is somehow linked to the B cell immunopathology observed in patients. In this research topic we invited scientists to summarize the current state of knowledge on regulation and development of B cells and antibody responses during HIV-1 infection; fifteen contributions were received comprising both reviews and original articles. The articles are related to B cell dysfunctions identified in HIV-1 infected individuals, production of different types of antibodies (neutralizing versus non neutralizing, and of different isotypes) in vivo during HIV-1 infection and the biological factors which may impact on this process, clinical potential and applications of anti-HIV antibodies and how to achieve neutralizing antibody responses to HIV-1 epitopes upon vaccination. The topic has gathered articles on front-line research undertaken in the field of B cells and antibodies in HIV-1 infection. It is our hope that the collection of articles presented in this book may be useful for new and experienced scholars in the field and add a piece to the complex puzzle of knowledge needed for the development of an HIV-1 vaccine.

No book has ever been published on tonal change and neutralization, two closely related topics in tonal phonology. This will be the first book to be devoted to both. The articles collected in this volume analyze a wide range of data concerning tonal change and neutralization, including post-lexical neutralization which represents a new topic in prosodic research. The volume as a whole covers a wide range of tone and pitch-accent languages in Asia, Africa and Europe, with a main focus on Asian languages/dialects many of which are endangered now. In addition to presenting novel data and analyses about individual languages, it provides typological perspectives on tonal change and neutralization. This volume will serve as an indispensable source of data and analyses for a wide range of linguists interested in phonetics, phonology, prosody, historical linguistics, language typology, endangered languages, Japanese linguistics, and Chinese linguistics.