The aim of this book is to demonstrate that in a representation-based model the phonological
organization of speech sounds within a word is reducible to the licensing properties of nuclei
with respect to structurally defined complexities which pose varying demands on the licenser.
It is assumed that the primitive licensing relation is that between a nucleus and its onset (O
N). There are two main types of complexities concerning the onset position. Substantive
complexity is an important aspect of phonological organisation at the melodic level while the
syllabic configurations in which the onset may be found are referred to under the heading of
formal complexity.At the melodic level complexity is defined in terms of the number of
privative primes called elements. The asymmetries in the subsegmental representations of
consonants and vowels are shown to play a pivotal role in understanding a number of phenomena
such as typological patterns markedness effects phonological processes segmental inventories
and what is most important the model allows us to see a direct connection between
phonological representations and processes. For example the deletion of [g] in Welsh initial
mutations is strictly related to the fact that the prime which crucially defines this object
also happens to be the target of Soft Mutation.The complexity at the syllabic level is defined
in terms of formal onset configurations called governing relations of which some are easier to
license than others. The formal complexity scale is not rerankable and corresponds directly to
the markedness of syllabic types. Since each formal configuration requires licensing from the
following nucleus syllable typology can be directly derived from the licensing strength of
nuclei. The interaction between the higher prosodic organisation for example the level of the
foot and the syllabic level is also easily expressible in this model because higher prosody is
built on nuclei. Therefore prosody may tamper with the status of nuclei as licensers by
deeming some of them as prosodically weaker than others thus producing a non-rerankable scale
of nuclear licensers (a P). The inclusion of the empty nucleus as a possible licenser allows us
to unify the scale of relatively marked contexts in segmental phenomena and also to account
for such problems as extrasyllabicity complex clusters super heavy rhymes and other
exceptional strings. The role of nuclei as licensers in unifying various levels of phonological
representation from melody to word structure is unquestionable. There are other areas of
phonological theory which can be expressed in this model. These include the role of nuclear
strength scales in register switches dialectal variation historical development language
acquisition and the interaction between phonology and morphology.
