Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

1.1.1.1. Phonetic arbitrariness in Pure Prominence models
Otherwise significant differences between these two approaches will not be of
concern here 2 . What is noteworthy in this context rather is the arbitrary relationship
between the positions “stressed syllable” or “unstressed syllable” and the features [hi]
and [lo] defining mid vowels. As it happens, precisely this combination of positions and
features is necessary with great frequency crosslinguistically, and thus raises few
eyebrows in its formalization as above. But as far as the phonology is concerned, there is
no reason why these statements should be preferred over the combination of the same
positions with any other sets of features, e.g. *[anterior]/unstressed σ. Models not
assuming universality of positional strength or weakness, furthermore, such as the accent
approach to stem-initial prominence in Kukuya, are in principle free to designate any
position strong or weak in this manner, regardless of crosslinguistic concerns of phonetic
plausibility. Any one combination of feature with position is considered just as well-
formed from the point of view of the phonology as any other combination of feature with
position, whether or not there is any reason to suppose that that feature is in any way
2 Zoll’s reason for advocating the Positional Markedness approach for certain cases was due to the
existence of patterns of positional neutralization in which material banned from weak positions migrates to
the strong position and is realized there. The core concept of Positional Faithfulness, that it is more
important not to alter input representations in strong positions than elsewhere cannot accommodate this
pattern, since in moving the marked features from weak position to strong it has precisely the effect of
altering the input specifications of the strong position. This is precisely the kind of issue which this
dissertation argues should concern phonologists modeling positional neutralization in the grammar.
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