Positional Neutralization - Linguistics - University of California ...

lengthening or lowering the sonority of vowels. Psycholinguistically-strong positions, on
the other hand, will according to Smith show only a restricted inventory of Positional
Augmentation effects, since the importance of these positions for processing makes it
crucial that as many contrasts as possible be realized faithfully there 115 .
It is Smith’s contention that initial position shows precisely these characteristics
crosslinguistically, such that while instances of initial syllables as sole licensers of a
language’s full inventory of contrasts are common, both for consonants and vowels,
instances of Positional Augmentation are severely restricted. Specifically, Smith claims
that the only such processes one finds are related to the presence or sonority of onset
consonants in initial syllables. This is expected according to a principle Smith formulates
as the Segmental Contrast Condition, which mandates (to oversimplify somewhat) that
segmental contrasts not be neutralized in a way that would be detrimental to early-stage
word recognition, unless those neutralizations themselves contribute to segmentation of
115 Smith also presents a rigorous delineation of the type of psycholinguistic prominence that should be
involved in determining aspects of the typology of licensing potential. Specifically at issue are positions
which have been shown to be important for early-stage word recognition (The relevant discussion is in
Smith 2002: 254-306). This is a first stage hypothesized in most models of word recognition in which, in
Smith’s words, “phonetic/phonological information is used to identify a set of candidate lexical entries for
further examination” and which is followed by “a later stage, in which the selected set is narrowed down
(often on the basis of more than just phonetic or phonological information) until the best-matching lexical
entry is identified” (Smith 2002: 257). There is an abundance of strong evidence, surveyed by Smith,
demonstrating the importance of word-initial material in precisely this aspect of speech processing. Smith
cites further evidence showing that stressed syllables do not exhibit the same importance in this stage of
processing. Recalling the discussion of the psycholinguistic status of the final syllable in Chapter 3, if it is
indeed solely significance to early-stage word recognition which has the potential to affect the status of a
position as a licenser of contrasts, then we might look to this as an explanation of the seeming irrelevance
of such information in determining the typology of licensing asymmetries in final position.
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