Topic about Phonology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Topic about Phonology - Assignment Example Autosegmental phonology is simply defined as an approach to sound change and phonological process. Including the tone as well as harmony, that is independent and extends the sound process beyond the use of vowels and consonants. It is a non linear phonological approach. Auto segmental approach offers multi dimensional approach and representations. It has more than a few tiers. Each level or tier of this approach offers a collection of segments. These tiers further clarify how various segments are pronounced. In the analysis of auto segmental phonological approach, it is declared that the tone or sound is not an asset or a property of syllables and individual vowels but the sound is an asset or a property of the whole word. Auto Segmental theory presents that the elements or the features of phonology are not assembled together in segments and unordered sets but all the features lead independently. So, phonological construction can be observed as independent instruments that are in the correspondence to communicative organs which work and play together. We can further see tone behavior as an example when we talk about autosegmental phonology in action. If we look the matter from psycholinguistic standpoint, we will see that it does not make a lot of sense as it is easier job to count syllables than segments. Moreover, people who are not familiar with reading and writing find the later task almost impossible. They can perform the earlier task without so many problems. Next to psycholinguistic point of view, phonological theory also tells that segments are not the only primitives of auto-segmental theory. There are some other small elements that play vital role making up the words of a natural language. So, a question to discuss here is that what is the organization of auto segmental theory looks like. According to this theory, we can observe the organization and structure of vocal sounds in human mind more or less similar to a musical score. Each and