Phonologically prominent or "strong" positions are known for their
ability to resist positional neutralization processes such as vowel
reduction or place assimilation. However, there are also cases of
neutralization that affect only strong positions, as when stressed
syllables must be heavy, default stress is inserted into roots, or
word-initial onsets must be low in sonority. This dissertation shows
that phonological processes specific to strong positions are distinct
from those involved in classic positional neutralization effects
because they always serve to augment the strong position with a
perceptually salient characteristic. Formally, positional
augmentation effects are modeled by means of markedness constraints
relativized to strong positions. Because positional augmentation
constraints are subject to certain substantive restrictions, as seen
in their connection to perceptual salience, they also have
implications for the relationship between functional grounding and
phonological theory.
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