Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

patterns are examples of the latter. To avoid confusion with terminology used in earlier
chapters here, I will substitute Positional Strength for Smith’s Positional Neutralization.
The issue is purely practical and should not be taken to bear theoretical significance. One
example of a Positional Augmentation pattern in initial syllables is the relatively common
demand for low-sonority onsets in initial or stressed syllable onsets, which has the result
of causing fewer consonantal contrasts to be licensed in those positions. Another would
be the demand for long or high-sonority vowels under stress, discussed in Chapter 2 and
also in Chapter 3 in the context of final vowel lowering.
4.1.2. Previous proposals for the motivation of PN in stressed and initial syllables
Both Beckman 1998 and Smith 2002 divide strong positions into the phonetically
strong (i.e. stressed syllables), and the psycholinguistically strong (i.e. initial syllables,
roots). For Beckman little follows from this classification. Smith pursues this dichotomy
further and examines the potential effect the source or nature of a position’s phonological
strength may have on the typological patterning of the licensing asymmetries found
therein. Smith’s prediction is essentially the following: a position which is phonetically-
strong may show both Positional Strength and Positional Augmentation effects, since
phonetic strengthening can have the effect of both exempting a position from lenitions or
reductions (as with final resistance to VR) and also itself of effacing contrasts by, e.g.,
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