Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

why we find such systems in Turkic and Niger-Congo, and why they are so rare
otherwise.
The UG-based approach to PN in initial syllables, relying as it does on
psycholinguistic properties of initial material arising as a consequence of the very fact of
that material’s initialness, makes none of the typological predictions recorded above. In
fact, it makes concrete predictions which are seen not to be born out in attested
typological patterns. Were it the case that licensing asymmetries spring from the fact that
it is equally important to the grammar for processing reasons to conserve all segmental
contrasts for every segment in the initial syllable, we would expect equal attestation of
positional strength effects involving consonants and vowels. This is not the case.
Furthermore, if the need to preserve vowel contrasts in initial syllables were truly
enshrined universally in phonological grammar, we might expect, for example, the
existence of systems of unstressed vowel reduction in which all unstressed vowels save
that of the initial syllable undergo neutralizations of contrasts, while the vowel of the
initial syllable, because of its psycholinguistic importance, resists the reduction process.
We know there are systems in which absolute initial vowels resist reduction for phonetic
reasons (Russian). We have seen numerous instances of phonetic final lengthening giving
rise to patterns of final vowel resistance to reduction, both phonetic and phonological.
Crosswhite (2001) provides an analysis of several systems in which the vowels of certain
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