Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

domain final and initial material to a single articulatory phenomenon, a local decrease in
gestural stiffness resulting in increased duration for the segmental material involved. This
decrease in gestural stiffness she attributes to the activation of what she calls a π-
(prosodic-) gesture, a non-constriction-based variable in the task dynamic model of
Articulatory Phonology that can alter the stiffness parameter for any gestures taking place
during the scope of the π-gesture. The π-gesture in question here straddles the phrase
boundary, affecting the segmental material on either side, and the material closest to the
boundary more dramatically than that further in on either side. This accounts nicely for
the gradual decrease in the effect of final lengthening as distance from the boundary
increases. It also predicts that initial consonants should be more strongly affected than the
vowels following them, though perhaps not the total lack of effect seen on this vowels in
the languages tested. Byrd speculates that the articulatory strengthening documented on
boundary-adjacent segments might also be a function of the presence of this π-gesture,
though the specifics of this interaction are still not entirely clear.
Now if the pattern of phonetic initial-strengthening described here were ultimately
to form the basis of the positional licensing asymmetries found in initial syllables, we
would expect exactly the effects described by Beckman and Smith for initial onset
consonants, while expecting the absence of either Positional Augmentation or Positional
Strength effects involving the vowels of initial syllables. Smith documents the non-
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