Explanatory Phonology: Principles And Applications

Explanatory Phonology: Principles and Applications explores the phonological principles of Columbia School of Linguistics (CSL) which supports an explanatory character primarily by validating the appearance of linguistic forms in a language and explaining why they take the shape that they do. Considering the explanatory enterprise of the discipline, the focus rests on providing explanations of phonological forms here rather than on mere descriptions. The explanatory analysis focuses on providing phonology of Urdu as spoken in the culturally rich city of Lucknow in India and is based on the theoretical constructs of the Columbia School phonological principles. It explores aspects of physiology, human psychology, communication, acoustics, and the visibility factor to justify the observed phenomena in the language under study. This book aims at providing an insight to students and other readers to become acquainted with an innovative approach to linguistic analysis with particular reference to phonology. Explanatory Phonology: Principles and Applications also helps students and general readers towards a deeper understanding of a quantitatively validated approach to language.