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ConclusionThe primary objective of this work was to demonstrate that the initialword-boundary marker ‘#’ is in reality an empty CV unit. In other words,the traditional word boundary, which must be recognised as merelya morphological marker, has been successfully replaced with a genuinephonological object. Since the beginning of the word is the empty CVunit, it is supposed to satisfy certain phonological requirements. Morecrucially, as a fully phonological object, it plays a pivotal role in syllabificationand various phonological processes. This ‘#’ = CV alignment, alongwith the Government Phonology idea to postulate word-final empty nuclei,contributes to the explanation of a great number of peculiaritiesoccurring at the word-margins.The point of departure for the analysis was the assumption that theinitial empty CV unit can be either phonologically active or inert. Thestatus of the initial site is responsible for the existence of two generalgroups of languages. Specifically, languages with an active CV unit possessword-initially relatively simple consonant clusters of the risingsonoritytype only — ‘TR’ languages. On the other hand, languages inwhich the initial site is inactive allow for more complex consonant sequencesof both rising- and falling-sonority type — ‘RT’ languages. Thiswork was devoted to the study of the left-margin phenomena in two languageswhich are representatives of the two groups, English and Polish.Additionally, it has been shown that the left-margin peculiarities in bothlanguages can receive a more satisfactory explanation only in a recentdevelopment of the Government Phonology framework, that is, the StrictCV model.The reason why Polish allows for word-initial complex consonantalsequences is that in this language the initial CV unit is inactive, andhence does not need to be governed. In this situation the two mecha-