[音韻] Autosegmental Phonology

Autosegmental Phonology
-----------------------------------------------------------

1. Introduction
2. Theory
3. Theory(Cont’d)
4. Related Links
5. Reference

1. Introduction

Autosegmental phonology is the name of a framework of phonological analysis proposed by John Goldsmith in his PhD thesis in 1976 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).
Copy from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosegmental_phonology

2. Theory

Autosegmental phonology was initially developed in response to the challenge of developing an adequate theory of tone. Its immediate source of inspiration was the work of Williams 1971 and Leben 1973; these were the first to introduce non-linear structures into generative phonology in their treatments of tone systems in West African languages such as Margi, Igbo and Mende. In the model proposed by these writers, underlying tones were represented on separate tiers from the feature matrices representing vowels and consonants; they were subsequently merged with these matrices by Tone Mapping Rules that applied in the course of derivation, creating single-tiered representations in surface structure.
The principal innovation of autosegmental phonology, as presented in Goldsmith 1976, was the idea that tone mapping rules do not merge tonal and segmental representations, but associate their elements by means of formal entities known as Association Lines. In this framework, phonological representations consist of parallel tiers of phonological segments, both tonal and segmental.

Tonal Representation

t t t t


H L H L

H=high tone L=low tone t=any tone-bearing unit (vowels or syllables)

Elements of each tier, called AUTOSEGMENTALS, are sequentially ordered; elements of adjacent tiers are simultaneous if and only if they are linked by association lines. In this model, all tiers remain independent throughout derivations: at no point is the tonal tier merged with segmental tier.

A further innovation of autosegmental theory is the set of universal principles termed Well-Formedness Conditions, which govern the multi-tiered structure of the representation. These principles not only define the set of theoretically possible inter-tier configurations; they also trigger the operation of a set of universal repair mechanisms, often termed Association Conventions, whenever configurations that violate them arise.

In subsequent work, autosegmental phonology underwent further development; by the mid-1980s it could be considered a fully general theory of phonological representation, radically different from the linear representational systems of more traditional approaches. The primary innovation of the generalized model has been the view that not just tone and other so-called ‘prosodic’ features, but all phonological feature are arrayed on separate autosegmental tiers. In this conception, which draws upon earlier research in Metrical Phonology and Prosodic Phonology.

Autosegmental Representation

β
Structural
Tiers
α α


X X X X Skeletal Tiers


Y Y Y Y


Z Z Z Z Substantive Tiers


W W W

Further developments in autosegmental phonology include the grid-based theory of stress proposed by Halle & Vergnaud 1987, and the model of intonation and prosodic structure developed by Pierrehumbert & Beckman 1988. For a more recent overview and several new proposals, see Goldsmith 1990. As remarked by Van der Hulst & Smith 1982, progress in autosegmental phonology has owed much to its ‘problem-solving efficiency’- i.e., its success in finding solutions for previously unsolved representational problems, and integrating them into a consistent, over-all theoretical framework.

3. Theory(Cont’d)

As a theory of phonological representation, autosegmental phonology developed a formal account of ideas that had been sketched in earlier work by several linguists, notably Bernard Bloch (1948), Charles Hockett (1955) and J. R. Firth (1948). On such a view, phonological representations consist of more than one linear sequence of segments; each linear sequence constitutes a separate tier. The co-registration of elements (or autosegments) on one tier with those on another is represented by association lines. There is a close relationship between analysis of segments into distinctive features and an autosegmental analysis; each feature in a language appears on exactly one tier. The working hypothesis of autosegmental analysis is that a large part of phonological generalizations can be interpreted as a restructuring or reorganization of the autosegments in a representation. Clear examples of the usefulness of autosegmental analysis came in early work from the detailed study of African tone languages, as well as the study of vowel and nasal harmony systems. A few years later, John McCarthy proposed an important development by showing that the vocalism and consonantism of Arabic could be analyzed autosegmentally.
As a theory of the dynamic of phonological representations, autosegmental phonology includes a Well-formedness Condition on association lines (each element on one tier that "may" be associated to an element on another tier "must" be associated to such an element, and association lines do not cross) plus an instruction as to what to do in case of a violation of the Well-formedness Condition: add or delete the minimum number of association lines in order to maximally satisfy it. Many of the most interesting predictions of the autosegmental model derive from the automatic effects of the Well-formedness Condition and their independence of language-particular rules.
In the first decade of the development of the theory, G. N. Clements developed a number of influential aspects of the theory involving harmonic processes, especially vowel harmony and nasal harmony, and John McCarthy generalized the theory to deal with the conjugational system of classical Arabic, on the basis of an autosegmental account of vowel and consonant slots on a central timing tier (see also nonconcatenative morphology).
Copy from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosegmental_phonology

4. Related Links
n Wikipedia
n Bloch, Bernard, 1948. A set of postulates for phonemic analysis. Language 24.
n Clements, G. N. 1976. Vowel harmony in nonlinear generative phonology: an autosegmental model. Indiana University Linguistics Club.
n Firth, J.R. 1948. "Sounds and Prosodies" Transactions of the Philological Society, pp 127-52.
n Goldsmith, John. 1990. Autosegmental and metrical phonology. Basil Blackwell.
n Hockett, Charles. 1955. A manual of phonology. Indiana University Publications in Anthropology and Linguistics 11.
n McCarthy, John. 1981. A prosodic theory of non-concatenative morphology. Linguistic Inquiry 12(3): 373-418.
n Ogden, R. and Local,J. K. , 1994 Disentangling Autosegments from Prosodies: A Note on the Misrepresentation of a Research Tradition in Phonology.
n Copy from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/custom/portlets/recordDetails/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERICExtSearch_SearchValue_0=EJ501527&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&accno=EJ501527
n "The Aims of Autosegmental Phonology" by John Goldsmith
n Autosegmental analysis of intonation (Lexicon of Linguistics)
n Autosegmental phonology (Doctoral dissertation by John Goldsmith)
n What is autosegmental phonology? (SIL)
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosegmental_phonology"

5. Reference

l EDLSTEIN JEFFEREY P. & MCGARY JANE etc. EDS. 1992. INTERNATIONAL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF LINGUISTICS. OXFORD UP.[ET1] [ET1]
l Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autosegmental_phonology
l 〈烏魯木齊化輕聲的語音性質與音系分析〉衛玉清
l 〈The Phoneics ans Phonology of High and Low Tones in Two Falling f0- contours in Standard German〉By Tamara Rathcke
l Tone Sandi from my Blogspot

[ET1]