Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

With respect to the syllable-structure generalization about Final Resistance
patterns, it is necessary to note that certain of the languages listed above conform to the
generalization only vacuously, insofar as they simply lack final closed syllables of any
description. Still though, the pattern is clear. It is worth noting finally that this syllable-
structure asymmetry could well be at least in part responsible for the fact that the final
lengthening study of Edwards et al. (1991) found strengthening of the vowels of final
unstressed syllables only. As it happened (and they in fact note), all the unstressed final
syllables they measured were open, while all the stressed finals in the study were closed.
3.2.3.3. Final Strength and psycholinguistic prominence
Recall now the hypothesis sketched in 3.1.2 that Final Strength effects could be
due not to phonetic realization, but to the psycholinguistic prominence of final syllables
in general, a prominence which might mandate faithful realization of vowels in those
syllables over that of vowels in less prominent positions (just as it did in the study of
Kehoe and Stoel-Gammon on children’s truncations in English). The asymmetry between
closed and open syllables observed above for Final Strength effects, however, is deeply
problematic for the psycholinguistic-prominence-only theory. Were it psycholinguistic
status that gives rise to strength effects, we would naturally expect these effects to be
distributed evenly among syllable types (as is the case in the acquisition study), since all
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