Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

4.4. Initial-syllable strength effects
The foregoing account of the development of phonological initial strength effects
from phonetic strengthening of initial material makes a prediction which flies in the face
of apparent typological fact: insofar as significant phonetic initial strengthening has been
detected only on word- or phrase-initial segments, and not on segments deeper inside
word-initial syllables, we would expect not to find phonological licensing asymmetries
involving those segments. This is indeed the case as concerns Positional Augmentation
effects, and yet the literature contains numerous reports of vocalic Positional Strength
patterns in which the initial syllable is the strongest licenser.
In this section I will argue that in none of the cases reported in the literature is it
actually the “initiality” of the syllable per se which is in fact responsible for the licensing
asymmetries. Rather, in each case either phonetic factors (various types of additional
duration) or morphological factors (the initial syllable is also the root) can account for the
phonologization of the patterns in question. Other factors, such as processing concerns,
need not be directly invoked to reach an understanding of attested typological
regularities. Aside from this, a third group of patterns, to be discussed first, has simply
been misanalyzed in earlier accounts of initial syllable typology. Section 4.4.1 analyzes
this group of putative initial-syllable PN effects which are better attributed to initial
stress. Section 4.4.2 introduces the possibility of durational asymmetries arising between
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