The syllabic affiliation of postvocalic liquids: An onset-specifier approach

In this paper we propose that the traditional rhymal adjunct position of standard Government Phonology should be replaced by an onset-specifier position, allowing a uniform interpretation of licensing and government relations within syllabic constituents. This approach appropriately models a number of generalisations regarding the distribution of postvocalic liquids in English and other languages, and can be fruitfully extended to other postvocalic consonants, such as nasals and /s/.