3. I. Introduction
Autosegmental phonology is a theory of phonological
representatioon which employs multi-tiered
representations rather than strings.
Autosegmental phonology includes a well-
formedness condition on association lines .
Each autosegmental tier contains a linearly ordered
sequence of autosegments.
4. when an articulatory gesture is interrupted by another distinct
gesture, one has to start a new in order to resume the gesture.
a. * H L H L H
ba la ba ba la ba
Representation (a) is ruled out because the same
tone H cannot be associated with the first and third
syllable when another tone (L) follows on the second
syllable
crossing is forbidden and a separate H tone must be
posited
5. III. Arguments against NCC
Coleman and Local (1989) argue that NCC does not , in fact,
constraint the class of well-formed autosegmental
representaions.
The NCC is not a constraint at all since it doesn’t restrict
the class of well-formed phonological representations.
6. The core of their arguments can be briefly sketched as
follows:
A distinction must be drawn between autosegmental
phonological representations and diagrams of those
autosegmental phonological representations.
The NCC is a constraint on diagrams, not
autosgmental phonological representations.
7. Graphs are abstract mathematical entities with no
unique visible manifestation.
NCC is a constraint on pictures, not on phonological
representations, since straightness of lines is a property of
pictures, not linguistic representations.
8. No crossing constraint is an incoherent concept
in autosegmental phonology because there is
no mathematical justification for insisting on
straight lines.
