Autosegmental Phonology

Autosegmental phonology represents phonological structure on multiple independent tiers linked by association, originally developed to analyze tone.

Definition

A theory of phonological representation in which features occupy separate tiers linked to segments by association lines, allowing one-to-many and many-to-one relationships.

Scope

This topic covers the multilinear theory of phonological representation introduced by John Goldsmith. Rather than treating a segment as a single bundle of features, autosegmental phonology places features such as tones on separate tiers connected to a skeletal tier by association lines, subject to well-formedness conditions. This captures the stability of tones under segmental change, tone spreading and contour formation, vowel harmony, and other long-distance dependencies. It treats the formal mechanisms of association, spreading, and delinking. The treatment is descriptive and analytic.

Core questions

• Why represent features on separate tiers?
• How do association lines link tiers, and what conditions govern them?
• How does the theory explain tonal stability and spreading?
• What other phenomena, such as harmony, does it capture?

Key theories

Multitiered autosegmental representation

Goldsmith's proposal that phonological features can be located on autonomous tiers connected to a skeletal core by association lines, so that, for example, tones persist when their host segments are deleted or altered.

History

Autosegmental phonology originated in Goldsmith's late-1970s work on tone, which showed that the stability and spreading of tones are best captured by representing tones independently of segments. The framework was extended to harmony, length, and feature geometry and became a standard representational tool.

Debates

Scope of the autosegmental approach

Scholars discuss how widely the multitiered approach should be applied beyond tone, and how it relates to feature geometry and to constraint-based theories, given that not all phenomena clearly require separate tiers.

Key figures

• John Goldsmith
• Bruce Hayes

Seminal works

• goldsmith1990
• goldsmith1995

Frequently asked questions

What is an autosegment?

An autosegment is a phonological element, such as a tone, that resides on its own tier and is linked to segments by association lines, allowing it to behave somewhat independently of the segments that bear it.

Why was autosegmental phonology first developed for tone?

Tones often stay in place or spread when the vowels that carry them change or disappear; representing tones on a separate tier from segments captures this stability and the many-to-one and one-to-many links between tones and tone-bearing units.